Could this be the breakthrough we are waiting for? The Bloom Box seems to be getting lots of hype and is being giving a major public launch tomorrow. It’s said it’s powered one of Googles datacenters and saved over $100,000 worth of electrickery. However at a cost of around $800,000 that, like all green technology, isn’t a saving except in CO2 output. They say the cost will be at $3,000 in under 10 years.
Maybe then we will all have one. And with a byproduct being hydrogen gas we can all have a home fueling station for our hydrogen cars at the same time. Free gas will have fossil fuels dropped in about 20 milliseconds.
Sounds too good to be true? Let’s wait and see.
If it uses cheep materials to produce the electricity where is the $800,000 going especially since the initial development was funded by NASA?
There is something that doesn’t smell right with it somehow. For a start how can something the size of a brick produce a continuous load of several kW without going into melt down?
Yes, I think it sounds too good to be true but would like to be proved wrong.
isn’t hydrogen flammable?
An interesting take in the Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/24/bloom_box/ plus the comments are very interesting.
Ivan, I think the $800K was because it was several big versions which burn gas, a fossil fuel, so it isn’t really a green thing just an efficient fossil thing.
James, Yes. Thats where the power is.