Is this the future? http://bit.ly/bloom-energy-will-change-the-world

Less fuel input = less CO2 output. Duh!

I live in alaska has anyone heard about the feasability of this eqipment operating in colder temperatures and blowing snow conditions?

The only thing that sets bloom apart is their backers and that they have solid oxide fuel cells instead of molten carbonate. We’ll see regarding price – soon enough. FCEL has solid oxide as well – via their ownership of Versa Power System.

FCEL’s fuel cell systems come in the 1 MW+ variety so they may be targetting utilities better at this point. The tech is well advanced and evolved thru many iterations.

The hype is well-deserved. Fuel cells will be big. The unknown is who will make $ on it.

The important info left out of the story is what is the cost of the energy produced. The amount of energy produced is really not that important because it is a unitless measure. Even the blurb in this story about the University of Tennesse study does not mention the cost per kilowatt of the energy produced, nor whether a gas fired boiler was a good comparison (why a boiler anyway??).

Finally, you have to go all the way back to the Presidency of Jimmy Carter to see the development of energy systems such as these. Most of them failed just as soon as taxpayer dollars quit funding them.

I suspect the BloomBox will only be financially viable with Cap & Tax. From what I have read and seen in the newstories thus far, the investors seem to imply that.

BTW, anyone who works in a industry with large scale hydrogen production will tell you just how hard it is to handle the stuff. H2 in damn small molecule/atom. Due to the properties of this element whether transporting it in liquid (really damn cold) or gas (really high pressure) is extremely difficult.

Further, the way most hydrogen is produced today is from natural gas. The other means of producing hydrogen is to use nuclear power plants. We all know just how difficult that will be to do (natural gas or nuclear).

Finally, no one yet has looked at the long term impact of really large wind or solar arrays might cause. Will these devices alter wind flows, change weather, or impact animal migrations?

I think you have hit it right on the button, seems like efficiency is the key element of the bloom box tech. I don’t think anyone is claiming zero emissions with this tech but it seems like it genuinely and mathematically can reduce fuel usage to create electricity through a more effective means than burning fossil fuels at the current rate. When compared to the kW output of a conventional power plant (coal fired) and the efficiency of said plant, almost anything including burning trash and / or wood oil would be more effective.

I’m glad to see a new approach to an old idea, fuel cells are nothing new but this could (if it comes to fruition), change the landscape of our world as we know it, Don’t discount its impact on solar or wind systems just yet, it has to be accepted as a viable replacement first.

Cautiously Optimistic.

I don’t think it’s a case of trying to say that it produces less CO2 directly. It’s a case of getting more energy (through higher conversion efficiency of the fuel itself) to achieve the same power output from less fuel input.

Yes, if the fuel input is the same, the amount of CO2 out is the same. But if I can cut the amount of fuel used to produce a given KWh in half by making the energy conversion 2x as efficient as straight burning/boiler processes, then the CO2 output is also cut in half.