Devlab

I’ve been cautiously optimistic while watching the progress of the Bloom Box for some time and Bloom has finally had an official coming out party.

So far?  Sounds great.  But of course if a team’s marketing department for example says Product-X can part the Red Sea, it’s pretty safe to assume that they’re just talking about a good boat.

From Bloom’s product website;

At the heart of every Energy Server™ is Bloom’s patented solid oxide fuel cell technology.

Each Energy Server consists of thousands of Bloom’s fuel cells. Each cell is a flat solid ceramic square made from a common sand-like “powder.”

Each Bloom Energy fuel cell is capable of producing about 25W… enough to power a light bulb. For more power, the cells are sandwiched, along with metal interconnect plates into a fuel cell “stack”. A few stacks, together about the size of a loaf of bread, is enough to power an average home.

In an Energy Server, multiple stacks are aggregated together into a “power module”, and then multiple power modules, along with a common fuel input and electrical output are assembled as a complete system.

The best coverage I’ve found so far comes from The Oil Drum, a peak-energy focused blog.  The discussion in the comments are pretty in-depth and cover the less-than-magic aspects of this new technology very well.

Really, if you’re interested in this topic, check out the comments at The Oil Drum for a good solid perspective from some very smart people.

Related links;

• Inhabitat: Bloom Box “Miracle” Micro Power Plant Officially Unveiled
• Wired: Is Bloom Energy’s Secret Ingredient Zirconia?
• BoingBoing: CBS runs free ad for “magic” energy box