How Much Money Could A “Bloom Box” Save Homeowners?
Bloom Energy has announced it’s highly anticipated “Bloom Box,” an alternative energy device that the company hopes will revolutionize the way we synthesize energy and fuel. How likely is it that these will someday become a household item?
The Price Per Kilowatt
The Bloom Energy product launch placed the cost of each unit, officially called Energy Servers, which is about the size of a small SUV and provides 100 kilowatts, at $700,000 to $800,000. While that seems like a huge initial cost, for large businesses the investment could pay off, if the boxes prove to be as efficient as its CEO K.R. Sridhar says. Consumer use is probably still a few years off, but if they are adopted by local power companies, this product could result in a huge decrease in homeowners energy bills.
Bloom Energy
But is it really as cost effective as the hype would have us believe? For the large companies who have been picked to receive the first shipments of the boxes, such as FedEx, Google and Wal-Mart, multiple boxes will be required, or some combination of boxes, solar and energy off of the traditional energy grid.
Running the Numbers
Recent estimates of the average cost of energy from the national, coal-powered grid are approximately 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Going by estimates on Bloom Energy’s website, a single Energy Server could power 100 average homes a year. Assuming that residential energy consumption is about 11,000 kw/h per year, it would take about 7 or 8 years of using the Bloom Box before you started seeing a significant return on your investment…even if you could find 99 neighbors who wanted to go in on one with you. However, this does not factor in the cost of the fuel that is necessary to power the Energy Server, or the large subsidies that are being provided by the federal and state governments to use these types of alternative, clean energies.
So far, companies that have implemented the Bloom Energy Servers have remained quiet, and the $3,000 home version is still ten years out, according to the Financial Times. However, whether or not these “Bloom Boxes” will carry financial benefits as well as the environmental one, still remains to be seen.
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It is early to throw water on this technology. If what I read is true, if natural gas powered, it produces the same amount of kw using 40 to 60 pct less fuel…if true, that is a good thing. Coal has other problems even at 10 cents a kw. Maybe some hybrids out there…a detoxed coal plant too expensive before, but palatable through a bloom device. The seemingly similar Australian ceramic fuel cell device combines electricity generation with water heating for further efficiency gains.
The story of Electricity goes back to 600 BC. After the burning of many brains we got the Light bulb in 1800 AD. Thanks to H. Davy who developed the electric arc in 1800 & thanks to Thomas Alva Edison for the invention of a light bulb that work indoors in 1879. Kindly note that from the outdoor electric arc to the indoor electric bulb it took 79 years!
For 2600 years no one thought of a way to produce electricity in a different way. Mankind was happy with the electricity in its present form all these years.
In 1800 AD the world population was only 978,000,000 (978 million) and today, 1 March 2010 it is 6,805,700,000 (6,806 million). In 1800 AD if there were 2 ordinary brains following H. Davy and his Electric Arc, now we have 14 super brains behind Dr. Sridhar and his Bloom Box.
In 1800 AD Sir H. Davy never promised anything better. On the otherhand Dr. Sridhar is confident that a cheaper version costing 267% less than the present cost of 800,000 will be delivered.
From Davy to Edison it took 79 years and a majority who saw the Electric arc never survived to see the Electric bulb. Let us collectively take Dr. Sridhar and all the other with him into confidence and wait hopefully and give him and his kind a helping hand to have a better world to live!
I think this new technology is a step in the right direction. http://bit.ly/c5VMdf Sure it may have some problems but regardless it is a better alternative for the environment than coal.
The Bloom Box uses MM.661btu of natural gas to produce 100kw hours of electricity. A 100kw natural gas generator (Generac) needs MM1.376btu (or 1339 cubic feet) to produce the same 100kw hours of electricity. So Bloom’s twice as efficient!!!
Bloom Box cost $800,000 vs $24,000 for the generator (a proven technology).
With natural gas @ $7 per 1000 cubic feet, anyone who paid attention to their elementry school arithmetic teacher can see this is a bunch of hype.
Unfortunately, they are going to cause serious damage to the genuine efforts of scientists worldwide who are working to advance fuel cell technology.
alex makes a good point…but I believe it is apples and oranges until you move past the prototype point. I would guess, only a guess that mass production would bring the costs down considerably given that the device seems relatively simple as compared to a gas turbine. This of course does not add in unknown profit and development costs of Bloom and its investors.
There is much better technology in the pipeline coming out of Asia that can produce electricity for under $0.01 per kilowatt hour using magnetic electric generators. Uses no battery storage or fuel! This technology puts fuel cells, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear electric power generation to shame.