Jump to content
Washington DC Message Boards

Bloom Energy Power Source


Guest Greenzen

Recommended Posts

Guest Greenzen



Bloom Energy was featured on 60 Minutes last night and spilled the beans on their cool, new Bloom Box. his coming Wednesday, Bloom Energy will debut its "Bloom box," a potentially revolutionary energy generating device. The Bloom Energy Box is already in use by Ebay, Google, Walmart.

US07524572-20090428-D00000.gif

1. A fuel cell system, comprising:
a fuel cell stack; and
a reformer which is thermally integrated with the fuel cell stack by being located adjacent to the fuel cell stack;
wherein:
the reformer is adapted to reform a hydrocarbon fuel to a hydrogen containing reaction product and to provide the reaction product to the fuel cell stack; and
the reformer comprises a reformation catalyst coated corrugated foil located in a reformer channel bounded by one or more walls of the reformer such that the hydrocarbon fuel is forced to make a zig-zag path through the reformer channel.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week17/OG/html/1341-4/US07524572-20090428.html
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bloom Energy Debuts Advanced Fuel Cell to Provide Clean, Reliable, and Affordable Power 24/7

 

Bloom Energy Server provides continuous onsite electricity from wide range of

renewable or traditional fuel sources

 

Industry-leading customers include Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Cox Enterprises, eBay, Google, FedEx, Staples, and Walmart

 

Bloom Energy Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based company committed to changing the way people generate and consume energy, announced today the availability of the Bloom Energy Server™, a patented solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)

technology that provides a cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable alternative to both today’s electric grid as well as traditional renewable energy sources. The Bloom Energy Server provides distributed power generation, allowing customers to efficiently create their own electricity onsite. The company introduced its groundbreaking technology at an event hosted today at eBay Inc. headquarters along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, General Colin Powell, and several of its early customers.

 

Built using abundant and affordable materials, Bloom’s fuel cell technology is fundamentally different from the legacy “hydrogen” fuel cells most people are familiar with. The Bloom Energy Server is distinct in four primary ways: it uses lower cost materials, provides unmatched efficiency in converting fuel to electricity, has the ability to run on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels, and is more easily deployed and maintained.

 

Unlike traditional renewable energy technologies, like solar and wind, which are intermittent, Bloom’s technology can provide renewable power 24/7.

 

Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100 kilowatts (kW) of power in roughly the footprint of a parking space. Each system generates enough power to meet the needs of approximately 100 average U.S. homes or a small office building. For more power, customers simply deploy multiple Energy Servers side by side. The modular architecture allows customers to start small and “pay as they grow”.

 

Bloom’s customers have deployed the solution to lower and/or fix their energy costs, while significantly cutting their carbon footprint and enhancing their energy security by reducing their dependence on the grid. Customers who purchase Bloom’s systems can expect a 3-5 year payback on their capital investment from the energy cost savings. Depending on whether they are using a fossil or renewable fuel, they can also achieve a 40-100% reduction in their carbon footprint as compared with the U.S. grid. Customers announced today include Bank of America (NYSE: BAC); The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO); Cox Enterprises; eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY); FedEx Express, an operating company of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX); Google (Nasdaq: GOOG); Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS); and Walmart (NYSE: WMT).

 

Since the first commercial customer installation in July 2008, Bloom’s Energy Servers have collectively produced more than 11 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, with CO2 reductions estimated at 14 million pounds – the equivalent of powering approximately 1,000 American homes for a year and planting one million trees.

 

“Bloom Energy is dedicated to making clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world,” said Dr. KR Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy. “We believe that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cell phones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localized energy source. Our customers are the cornerstone of that vision and we are thrilled to be working with industry leading companies to lower their energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint, improve their energy security, and showcase their commitment to a better future.“

Powder to Power – How It Works

 

Founded in 2001, Bloom Energy can trace its roots to the NASA Mars space program. For NASA, Sridhar and his team were charged with building technology to help sustain life on Mars using solar energy and water to produce air to breath and fuel for transportation. They soon realized that their technology could have an even greater impact here on Earth and began work on what would become the Bloom Energy Server.

 

The Bloom Energy Server converts air and nearly any fuel source – ranging from natural gas to a wide range of biogases – into electricity via a clean electrochemical process, rather than dirty combustion. Even running on a fossil fuel, the systems are approximately 67% cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant. When powered by a renewable fuel, they can be 100% cleaner. Each Energy Server consists of thousands of Bloom's fuel cells – flat, solid ceramic squares

made from a common sand-like "powder."

 

“Today we are witnessing something special," said John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Bloom Energy board member. "This is new kind of product announcement. It comes long after a product has shipped and it comes directly from marquis customers. For years, there have been promises of new energy solutions that are clean, distributed, affordable, and reliable; today we learn that Bloom, formerly in stealth, has actually delivered. Americans

want clean, affordable, energy, 24x7 -- and all the jobs that go with it. Bloom's boxes are a breakthrough, serving energy, serving demanding customers, and serving our country."

 

Bloom Energy’s management team possesses expertise across a number of relevant industries, including aerospace, high volume manufacturing, semiconductors, automotive, naval nuclear, and Silicon Valley startups. In addition to CEO Sridhar, the company’s board members include John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers; General Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State; Scott Sandell, general partner, New Enterprise Associates (NEA); T.J. Rodgers, chairman, SunPower; and Eddy Zervigon, managing director, Morgan Stanley.

 

Bloom Energy’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, representing the firm’s first clean tech investment, as well as Morgan Stanley, NEA, and Northgate Capital.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bloom Energy offers you a way to lock-in your electricity costs for thelong term. You can fix your electricity costs by entering into a longterm fuel contract with your gas supplier and taking advantage of ourability to consistently produce clean electricity from that fuel.

 

Distributed Generation is the Answer

 

Distributed generation refers to power generation at the point ofconsumption. Generating power on-site, rather than centrally,eliminates the cost, complexity, interdependencies, and inefficienciesassociated with transmission and distribution, and shifts control tothe consumer. In addition to providingdistributed generation, Bloom's technology offers several other keybenefits contributing to energy security.

 

  • Bloom's modular building block architecture is fault tolerant, helping to ensure the highest levels of power availability.
  • Thesystems are capable of running on a wide range of pipeline and locallystored fuels and can automatically detect an interruption and cut overfrom a primary to a backup fuel source.
  • The systems can operate in grid parallel mode — the grid provides a great backup and surge handler.
  • Inaddition to availability, power quality is also an important issue. Intoday's digital age, many technologies suffer from variation in voltageor electrical flow over the transmission and distributioninfrastructure that result in poor power quality. Bloom generatesperfect waveform at the point of consumption. That means perfect powerquality for our digital age.

http://www.bloomenergy.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...