During a news conference, a Silicon Valley start-up Bloom Energy Corp. showcased the model of Bloom Energy fuel cell that is designed to facilitate individual homes and business set ups to produce power on their own. The conference was attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell and was held at San Jose headquarters. The Bloom Box launch was a much anticipated event after the "60 Minute" spot of Bloom Box video generated enough buzz already.
The company presented Bloom Energy Server that has been described as a game changer for the clean energy industry in the U.S. The Server comprises of the solid oxide fuel cell which is designed to generate electricity with help of a mixture of oxygen and renewable or traditional fuels. The most effective part of Bloom Box fuel cell is that the electricity is produced by the fuel cell without releasing any harmful emissions.
K.R. Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, said that the basic thought behind designing the Bloom Energy Server is to make clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world. He further added that the server will have a similar long lasting effect on energy as cell phones have had on communication. As the cell phones were evolved from landlines to enhance telephony similarly Bloom Energy will allow the implementation of distributed power as a better accessible, localized energy source.
He said that 20 big corporate brand names comprising of FedEx, Wal-Mart, Staples, eBay and Google have Bloom Boxes already in place and are producing power for them. The information is set to make an impact on Bloom Box Stock value.
“Since last 18 months Google has been utilizing the services of four Bloom Boxes at their company's Mountain View headquarters,” said Niki Fenwick, Google spokeswoman through an email.
She further added that the boxes were a permanent purchase of Google and that they were really happy with the performance of the servers as the company is always looking out for clean and economic power. She told that the four Bloom Box Servers have a framework for 400 KWA power for Google. And during the last one and half years the project had been 98% available and has produced 3.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
According to the report issued by eBay, the five bloom servers the company is using at its San Jose premises help to take 15% of the total energy requirements from the grid fully.
Sridhar said the company aims to view their Bloom Boxes as an item for common use in backyards and basements of the houses before 2020. He told that the approximate cost of the servers for homes is around $3,000. The news has caused rise in Bloom Energy Stock as expected.
