A former NASA rocket engineer may have a solution to the massive and costly electrical grid upgrades necessary to keep American society living and working. Some have said over the next 20 years the United States will have to invest over $1 Trillion in infrastructure to maintain it. But hold it ....what about no grid at all!! The man behind the new business idea is K.R. Sridhar. His idea is shrouded in mystery and is to be released to the public this coming Wednesday at his company's Sunnyvale California headquarters. The company is called Bloom Energy.
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Bloom Energy "develops a flexible fuel cell system that produces clean, reliable and affordable energy from a wide range of fuels," ultimately giving consumers the ability to generate their own electricity for less than they pay their utility as well as reduce their carbon emissions by at least half.
"60 Minutes" says the Bloom Box features a new kind of fuel cell. Oxygen combines with fossil fuels like natural gas or renewable fuels like solar, to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity, with no need for power lines from an outside source. Sridhar is an Indian-born engineer who has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He says he hopes to see the day when the average consumer could buy a unit for less than $3,000.
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Google was Bloom's first paying customer; a Bloom Box is installed at the Mountain View campus and has been powering a large chunk of the building's energy needs since July 2008. Ebay, Walmart, and FedEx have also installed Bloom Boxes.
This sounds like a amazing idea. Truly American in nature. Allowing homeowners and businesses the ability to cut loose from the grid and offering an alternative to the electrical monopolies. I must say I'm very hopeful!
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