Bloom introduces home, business fuel cell

Computerworld/Businessweek:

At a news conference attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Silicon Valley start-up today took the wraps off a fuel cell designed to enable individual homes and businesses to generate their own power.

Bloom Energy Corp. showed off the Bloom Energy Server , which is being billed as a game changer for the clean energy industry. The solid oxide fuel cell is built to generate electricity with a mixture of oxygen and renewable or traditional fuels -- all without creating any emissions.

...

Sridhar noted that 20 corporate big hitters, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, Staples, eBay and Google already are using Bloom Boxes. Today's news conference was held at eBay's San Jose headquarters.

Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said in an e-mail to Computerworld that the search giant has been using four Bloom Boxes at the company's Mountain View headquarters for the past 18 months.

"The boxes are a permanent purchase," Fenwick wrote today. "We may expand our use of the fuel cells in the future, but we don't have anything to announce at this time.... We're always on the lookout for opportunities to power our operations with clean and economic power and willing to try innovative new things, and we've been pleased with our Bloom Energy experience."

She added that the four Bloom Boxes make up a 400-kilowatt installation for Google. And over the last year and a half, the project has had 98% availability and delivered 3.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

...

Sridhar said he's also hoping to see Bloom Boxes become a common fixture in people's backyards and basements before 2020. He estimated the cost of systems for individual homes at about $3,000.

"This is certainly interesting technology and, at least from what I've seen, is the first fuel cell that is deployable now and not just a scaled up lab experiment," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "They cite a three-to-five-year payback on capital investment via energy cost savings, which is a great number. But without knowing the lifespan of the unit or maintenance costs, it really doesn't tell us the whole story."

Olds also noted that Bloom Energy is contending that its fuel cells have a 2-to-1 efficiency advantage over electric utilities.

...

The article does not say what fuel is used in the fuel cell beyond "renewable and traditional fuels." It is hard to visualize at this point whether it is going to feed off of a natural gas or propane line or some other form of fuel. Propane costs tend to mirror gasoline cost to some extent, while natural gas prices have been falling lately because of increased discoveries. The last paragraph suggest that it could cut the cost of powering your home electricity in half, which is probably where they get the five year payback estimate, but it is not clear if that also includes the fuel costs.

I think they may have a better application in autos if their size and weight are not to large. It would solve the range problem with current electric vehicles.

This San Francisco Chronicle story gives more details on the device.

...

Sridhar said the servers can provide electricity at 9 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 14 cents for power from the grid. With those savings, most customers will make their money back in three to five years, he said.

Sridhar's price estimate includes financial incentives from the federal and California governments, which together can cover half the server's cost. He defended those subsidies Wednesday as necessary to help innovative technologies grow and said the server's prices will fall as the company scales up.

...

The article says the device is as big as a pickup. I assume that is for the commercial size units used by the companies listed above and that a home model would be much smaller. The amount of the subsidies was not given.

The Wall Street Journal points out the cost savings are based on California rates which are significantly higher than the average rate in the US. The average is actually closer to the cost given for the units which suggest no real payback on the investment for most Americans at this point.