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The Bloom Box will pay for itself in 4 to 5 years

Monday, 01 Mar 2010
 

A team of Silicon Valley based researchers, led by KR Sridhar, have introduced a new form of energy that they claim can convert almost any fuel source into clean electricity. Where Bloom Energy stands out is the design and materials it’s using in its fuel cells, which offers the potential to lower costs with higher manufacturing volume. The primary reason most of us haven’t heard about “fuel cells” is the engineering is difficult and up till now too expensive to be a realistic energy source.

The firm, Boom Energy, which has kept their work secret for the past eight years, has attracted a jaw dropping $400 million from venture capitalists, including Google, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, eBay and Fedex.

Being called the “Boom Box”, the unit is about the size of a shipping container. The basic principal behind the technology is it takes in fuel and puts out electricity with the ability to provide up to 100 kilowatts, or enough to power 50 homes. Bloom Energy plans to bring the technology into people’s homes, using a much smaller version, and eventually mix it with other types of green power technology, such as solar energy, in order to create a new type of power grid.

The numbers speak for themselves. Customers can purchase a Bloom box for approximately $800,000 (or so, unsubsidized), and generate electricity for 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Versus a utility cost of between 13 and 14 cents per kWh, customers should be able to pay back the cost of the Bloom Box in between 3 to 5 years. This has all been well reported. bloom-box-picture




Reader's Comments

  1. please let me know there abouts how much it would cost myself too get you to install a boom box in a 3 bedroom house with 47 of your plates in the box thank you for your help and please keep me informed as too your bussiness thank you i live in australia if that makes eany differance to cost please i am genuine customer hopefuly if price is good thank you for your help with this yours dean.

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