This sounds absolutely fantastic and Bloom Energy has been testing their initial models at big name corporations with locations in California, including Wal-Mart, Google, and eBay. eBay has stated that 15% of the power needed to run their computer intensive campus in San Jose is produced by five of the refrigerator sized boxes and has saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs. Google has also ordered several of the refrigerator sized units and has stated that their few boxes produces considerably more energy than their hundreds of solar panel units in a much smaller area. There have been a few problems with keeping the oxygen vacuum clean and a few bumps in the power process, but that is what the testing phase is for.
But leave it to conservative blogosphere to pick at an invention that has the potential to change our very society and the world. The clip from 60 Minutes is also included on this page.
Is the author of this article seriously considering the weight of the fuel cell to be a determining factor of whether or not the Bloom Box is a legitimate breakthrough? The reason the weight of the energy cell is integral in automobile production is because the car has to move and car that weight, a power generator does not. The fact that the product hasn't been tested by a utility group, but has by business campuses doesn't prove anything about the effectiveness of the device, if anything it proves how applicable it is to modern business. And then the article cites the interviews lack of facts on how much natural gas the terminal would require. The thing is, most educated bloggers of the Wall Street Journal, the fuels that can be used for causing the chemical reaction in the fuel cells are not restricted to just natural gas. The only reason that Google used natural gas was because they had a pre-existing gas line, if the blogger had watched the full presentation, then they would have realized that biomass fuel, as used by eBay, solar power, and wind power can also be used to power. Granted, wind power might not be in the league of the household consumer, but biomass fuel and solar energy certainly is, especially as solar cells become cheaper and more efficient and as biomass fuel production becomes more efficient over the next five to ten years.
But don't just consider the nit picking problems that are potentially part of the device. What about the possibilities the device has to change our world. When they become cheaper, two refrigerator sized units could probably be installed in African and remote Asian villages and power the entire village with little need for a complex nation-wide infrastructure as seen in American. With an energy plan that requires only local infrastructure, the African continent can grow and develop with energy to provide modern medical facilities and food markets with power. In the western world on the other hand, next to automobile emissions, energy production is the highest contributor of greenhouse gases in the world. If all of the homes and businesses can be powered in the developed world at even half of the emissions as present today, imagine that impact it would have on humanity's carbon footprint and our ability as a species to curb global climate change. And if Bloom Energy is able to optimize this device in the future for vehicles, or even just cargo trains, ships, and tractor-trailers if the energy cell is to heavy for individual cars, the effect would be incredible.
Why does Bloom Energy have to be condemned for their project before it is even truly unveiled to the public? They will have enough problems navigating the bureaucracy of the nations energy politics and the interests of Big Energy; can't we just accept that they have something with real potential on their hands, support them, and hope that it achieves the goals they are capable of, instead of battering them down to appease our cynical spirits? For the sake of our planet, the human race, and the future of civilized society, can't we just hope, for once?
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