Bloom Box - Power of the future?

Bloom Box was featured on 60 Minutes last night. This was a very interesting presentation. Fuel cells have been around since the 1800's but no one has managed to produce a practical fuel cell for mass production consumer and routine corporate use. The closest to meeting that in the past were Ballard Power of Canada(NASDAQ:BLDP) and Fuelcell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:FCEL) Ballard has sold off most of the technology for automotive fuel cells to the auto industry. They still produce products for backup power use in telephone offices and computer server farms and larger more complex units for hospital power and heat. Fuel Cell Energy is focused on large industrial sized applications only.

Bloom a Sunnyvale California privately held company is aiming for the home consumer as well as small and large business. They are targeting $2000 for a refrigerator sized home unit to power the standard U.S. household needs. This would likely be connected to the city gas mains or absent that option a propane tank at the customer site.

There is a lot to be said for being independent of power lines and substations for the powering your home or business. I don't remember a single occasion in the last ten years the gas has been out. Unfortunately, I can not say as much for the A/C power. This would also be a great improvement for the environment as it would supplant a great deal of coal produced electricity. In some cases bio gases from decaying land fill contents can be used to power these devices. This gas would otherwise vent to the atmosphere unused.

Bloom already has an impressive list of industrial customers actually using the "beta" form of the boxes. The current cost of these boxes is between $700,000 and $800,000 for industrial size units. EBay is using eight of the units to supply 15% of their electricity from bio gas and have reported saving upwards of $100,000 per year.

Only time will tell if the price of the units can be brought down to practical levels for in the home use.

The first official public announcement of this product is coming shortly so check back for updates.

In the mean time the video below features the Bloom Energy founder K.R. Sridhar in a 60 Minutes interview.

I'm sorry the video is no longer available.