Bloom Energy has officially announced their
Bloom Box fuel cell we told you about earlier in the week. At a press conference that was attended by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bloom Energy unveiled the Bloom Energy Server. The Bloom Energy Servers are still being used by a number of businesses such as Google and eBay.
The technology works by producing energy from multiple fuels and they have fairly low emissions making the technology very green and energy effective. The Bloom Energy Server provides distributed power generation, allowing clients to efficiently create their particular electricity onsite. The company introduced its ground breaking technologies at an event hosted these days at eBay Inc. headquarters as well as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, General Colin Powell, and several of their early clients.
Built using abundant and affordable materials, Bloom's fuel cell technology is really different from the legacy hydrogen fuel cells most people are familiar with. The
Bloom Energy Server is distinct in four main ways: it uses less costly materials, provides unmatched efficiency in converting fuel to electricity, has the power to run on a wide range of renewable or conventional fuels, which is more easily deployed and maintained.
The cells are actually created from sand, which means in the long run they should be pretty cost effective to generate, and unlike other energy efficient methods, the fuel cells can run twenty four hours a day. The Bloom Energy Server uses solid oxide fuels cells, the power is generated when there is a reaction between oxygen and natural gas, ethanol and landfill gas that is readily available.
Each Bloom Energy Server offers 100 kilowatts (kW) of power in roughly the footprint of an parking space. Each system can generate ample power to satisfy energy needed by about 100 average U.S. homes or possibly a small office building. For much more power, clients merely deploy multiple Energy Servers next to each other. The modular architecture allows customers to start smaller than average pay as they grow.
From the initial commercial customer installation in July 2008, Bloom's Energy Servers have collectively produced much more than 11 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, with CO2 reductions estimated at 14 million pounds - the equivalent of powering approximately 1,000 American houses for the year and planting one million trees. Every of the Bloom Servers will currently cost around $700,000, which suggests at the moment the technology are only able to be used by big companies who's able to afford the outlay.
Bloom Energy offers to develop a Bloom box directed at the home user, even though this is something which is most likely quite a way off. They expect the unit to price around $3,000. It is going to be interesting to see how the technology is developed, and when it may be scaled to deliver cheap, effective energy to the home user at reasonable costs.
03-15-2011, 02:27 PM
Bloom Energy Server Launches Leading-edge - Bloom Box Fuel Cell
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