America’s Next Energy Revolution

By John Vlahakis

It only takes one idea, one product to change the world. The light bulb, the telephone, the car, plane, and computer – well you get the idea. Last Sunday, 60 Minutes ran a segment on an idea that has become reality; the first fuel cell that could revolutionize how electricity is generated and delivered to your home. It’s called the Bloom Box. It is a device that can provide grid free electricity to your home. The box itself is cube shaped, and roughly the size of a 6” by 6” by 6” shaped box. According to K.R. Sridhar, the rocket scientist behind this product, one of these cubes can power 4-6 homes in Asia; one home in Europe, but you would need two of these to power a typical American home. K.R. is actually a rocket scientist. His initial design was to build a box for NASA that could create oxygen on Mars. NASA never tested the box, and K.R. reversed engineered the box to create this new fuel cell. Fuel cell concepts have been tried since the 1800’s. Most need exotic metals or fuels to make them work, and none of them could operate for long times. The Bloom Box is a commercial product now, and large boxes have been installed at Google, ebay, FedEx, Staples, and even Wal-Mart are all testing the box at their facilities. Ebay went on record to say that the box has provided cost savings on their electric bill, and is more efficient in providing electricity than the 5 acres of solar panels they have on their campus roofs. Bloom Box has garnered financial support from John Doerr, a private equity investor from the firm Kleiner-Perkins, who was the initial investor in amazon.com, Google, ebay, and Segway. K.R. on 60 Minutes indicated that the box transmits electricity wirelessly to the home, and can be powered from sustainable sources like wind, solar, biomass, and even from fossil fuels like natural gas. The Bloom Box is cleaner than the current transmission of electricity, and could eventually replace the transmissions lines found all across the U.S. The planned cost for a home unit could be as low as $3000. Unfortunately, Bloom Energy can only make one box a day. They have a long way to go to before they can make this into a viable consumer product. I wish them all of the success possible on making this a viable alternative to the world.