Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Bloom Box: A Green Power Plant for Your Home

Bloom Box
A Green Power Plant in a bread-loaf size Box, for your home!
The world is undergoing through a severe energy crisis, forcing the scientists to innovate for alternate sources of energy. The focus is on renewable sources of energy which are considered as green technologies.
All eyes are on Bloom Box fuel cell, going to be official launched in Silicon Valley on 24 Feb. 2010. Check out the following features of Bloom Box:-

  • A power plant in a small box for your home/office.
  • One unit can be as small as the size of a bread-loaf.
  • A bread-loaf sized unit can power one American home.
  • Unit does not vibrate, emits no sound, no smell.
  • Unit can be scaled up for more power.
  • Bio-fuel, Bio gas can be pumped up to produce clean energy.
  • Can also be connected to conventional electric grids.
Who is using Bloom Box?

Google, Wal-Mart, eBay, FedEx and few other corporate customers are quietly (secretly) using it from last one year or so. The first customer Google is using it from last 18 months to power one of its Data Centers. eBay has installed Bloom Boxes on the front lawn of its San Jose location and it receives almost 15% of its energy needs from Bloom, saving about $100,000 since installing its five boxes 9 months ago. These corporate customers are using refrigerator-sized Bloom Boxes. The corporate-sized cells cost $700,000 to $800,000. Quite expensive!

The Brain Behind Bloom Box

The man behind this magical Bloom Box is Dr K. R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, a Non Resident Indian in United States. Sridhar initially developed the idea behind the Bloom Box while working with NASA, as a means of producing oxygen for astronauts landing on Mars.
Dr Sridhar holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India. He earned an MS in Nuclear Engineering and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

When can you expect a Bloom Box at your Home

Sridhar estimates that a Bloom Box for your home will be out with in a time frame of 5 to 10 years. "In five to ten years, we would like to be in every home,” told Sridhar in an interview with a News channel.

Estimated Price of a Bloom Box

Bloom Box for home users will be priced under $ 3,000. Considering the current price it looks quite challenging.

If Sridhar succeeds it will be a boon for developing countries like India; as it will fulfill the energy needs of remote villages in a clean & green way.

Other Technology Articles you may find Interesting
Wireless Electricity: A Game Changing Innovation

15 comments:

  1. very nice share very informative

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  2. This is infact awesome, But the time that has been estimated to complete is really very long, and We are going to lose another major part of valuable gases and layers. And BTW the price is really HIGH :)

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  3. I heard about Green energy. Bloom box is a new term for me.

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  4. Thanks for the share.. Bllom Box seems to be a revolutionary product.. Proud to know that an Indian is there behind the project..

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  5. http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/20_yr_old_Bangalore_engineers_design_the_Earthbound_system-nid-65871.html?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Subscriber

    Similar innovation but with different means!!!

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  6. Well never heard of that...It looks awesome product.!

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  7. Hey I have recently read information about Bloom box..I have also read this post about Bloom box.I did not know this much information about it.I like that its portable and in this way we can get read of the power grid lines.I do appreciate Dr K. R. Sridhar for this Bloom box.

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  8. Oh dear! The good-old fuel cell again. So, where is the fuel (most likely hydrogen) going to come from? Oh, yes. Natural gas (fossil fuel). How much energy does it take to make the hydrogen and then transport it to all these little gizmos? More than it would to just deliver the electricity to the customer via the national grid. So what's the point? Then there's the cost of the distribution of the fuel. If it's hydrogen, the cost is huge due the amount of compression required to make it practical enough to transport - 2 orders of magnitude greater than propane. This really is a gargantuan white elephant for anything except off grid situations - like the moon.

    Martin Winlow, UK.

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  9. I love how you created the Bloom Box. It will be really helpful around the world. A lot of people are waiting for it to come out so people can get it. These are very intersting facts and good information.I can't wait until the bloom box comes,out so I can but it in my country "INDIA". Over there in India it is too hot. People are getting sick because of the hot weather in India. Bloom Box, we need you in INDIA.What type of energy does the bloom box use? How is it helpful in other countries?

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  10. i actually knew abt it
    still i m happy as i needed this info for a project
    thank u very much

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  11. how to contact this bloombox company or Mr.Sridhar for installing this

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  12. really a very appreciable work.....a very very congrats to Mr. Sridhar...

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  13. dependency on hydro carbon based fuels and polluting feature make this a not so great thing anyways!

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  14. I think that's a really great idea. Having a small green power plant like that one can really help. Thanks.

    virtual office

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