Canberra Times
Friday 26/2/2010 Page: 3
A mini-power plant roughly the size of a small fridge is set to drive a global green energy revolution by literally bringing power to the people. The Bloom Box, unveiled yesterday by Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy, is a stack of wafer-thin solid oxide fuel-cells that generates electricity by combining natural gas or biofuels with oxygen via a chemical reaction. The "electricity in a box" breakthrough will allow homes and offices to generate electricity on site, reducing dependence on coal-fired power and centralised electricity generation. It also needs far less land than solar arrays and wind farms.
The technology was launched at eBay's headquarters in California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who described it as "a shining star" of clean energy innovation. "It produces safe, reliable power that is 60% cleaner than a coal-fired power plant.., and it produces that power on site. You don't need transmission lines; you don't have to put it on a grid," Mr Schwarzenegger said. Developed by NASA aerospace engineer Dr K.R. Sridhar, the Bloom Box traces its origins to the Mars space program. Dr Sridhar and his research team were asked to devise a technology to produce oxygen for astronauts on Mars, and hydrogen to fuel transport vehicles, but realised their research results had bigger implications for Earth.
"We believe we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cell phones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localised energy source," Dr Sridhar said. The technology has been tested for the past 18 months by a who's who of commercial customers in the United States that includes Google, FedEx, Walmart, eBay, Cocoa-Cola and the Bank of America. Bloom Energy's board members include former US secretary of state General Colin Powell and the managing director of global financial firm Morgan Stanley, Eddy Zervigon.
About $400 million has been invested in the fuel-cell project by Silicon Valley venture capital investors Ideiner Perkins Canfield & Byers, who have a history of backing winners that include Amazon.com and Apple's iPhone and iPod technologies. Kleiner Perkins spokesman John Doerr said the technology would give the US "clean, affordable, energy 24/7 - and all the jobs that go with it". Deputy director of Australia's Clean Energy Council Rob Jackson quipped the breakthrough showed "not every big idea conies from thinking outside the box". "If Bloom Energy really has developed a technology that can work cheaply on a large scale using readily available materials, we absolutely welcome that," he said.
"An effective fuel-cell has been something of a holy grail for the energy industry and different fuel-cell models have been in development for more than a century. Some Australian companies such as Ceramic Fuel Cells have also been producing some positive breakthroughs in this area. We need to revolutionise the way we deliver energy in order to deal with the risks of dangerous climate change and as a result we need deep thinkers with revolutionary ideas." The fridge-sized power units currently cost around $800,000 each, but Dr Sridhar's goal is to create a $3000 box that can be used to power homes. Bloom is not the only company pursuing fuel-cell technology, and competitors have been quick to point out commercialisation of the Bloom Box may take up to 10 years. Some rivals have dismissed Bloom's claims as "big hype", saying the fuel-cell technology they've announced is not new.
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