Possible Paradigm Shift For Off-Grid Energy Generation

This report was on 60 Minutes tonight. Its called "The Bloom Box," and might possibly be changing everything about the way we power up our homes.

Here is an excerpt:

(CBS) In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.

It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive - until now...

I'll try to find a video link when one becomes available, I think it is too soon right now, the show just finished.

Here is the link to the 60 Minutes webpage:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

Interesting. That's awesome! I'll be watching for that. F'ck the grid. Too expensive and it's in total disrepair and falling apart anyway.

I do believe their is a natural paradigm shift occurring in the free market. It all has to do with who will be the first to make off-grid living an economically feasible option. It looks like it's coming.

Wouldn't it be great if we didn't even NEED the grid anymore? I'd say we're definitely heading that direction. One of the scariest terror attack scenarios involves going after the spaghetti bowl of wires that makes up our energy grid...all of it controlled through the internet. If every house had it's own energy generating system, that type of terrorist attack would be null and void.

excellent! sounds great! thanks for the info

Hal said:

Wouldn't it be great if we didn't even NEED the grid anymore? I'd say we're definitely heading that direction. One of the scariest terror attack scenarios involves going after the spaghetti bowl of wires that makes up our energy grid...all of it controlled through the internet. If every house had it's own energy generating system, that type of terrorist attack would be null and void.

Click to expand...

I saw the CNN war room cyber-attack scenario. Interesting indeed.

I'll have to say I was more scared of how nonchalantly the Constitution was thrown aside. All the questions centered around centralizing the power of the government and more specifically the Executive Branch. The assumption of power and their lexicon freaked me out a little bit.

NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE.

When you piss people off they are going to come and get you. We are only reacting, but not addressing the core problem.

Many a good reason to go off grid these days IMO.

Is the "Magic" Alternative Energy Bloom Box for Real?

Is the "Magic" Alternative Energy Bloom Box for Real?

Could this be the perfect growroom accessory if the cost comes down? It makes energy and CO2. What else could we ask for?

http://www.dailytech.com/Is+the+Magic+Alternative+Energy+Bloom+Box+for+Real/article17752.htm

Fuel cell box powered by secretive tech, many questions remain

It's a shiny box with a whole lot of mystery that's receiving a whole lot of attention this week. The "Bloom Box" a roughly cubic structure has already been embraced by eBay, Google, Staples, FedEx, and Walmart, which extol its savings. But is the new box the solution to all of mankind energy problems or a snake oil remedy for the world's fossil fuel habit?

In an exclusive interview on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, company K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, gave the public a tantalizing first peak at the secret alternative energy device. And on Wednesday, he will follow that performance up with a major public announcement in Silicon Valley, which will play host to such distinguished guests as Colin Powell, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a host of prominent venture capitalists.

So what is a Bloom Box exactly? Well, $700,000 to $800,000 will buy you a "corporate sized" unit. Inside the box are a unique kind of fuel cell consisting of ceramic disks coated with green and black "inks". The inks somehow transform a stream of methane (or other hydrocarbons) and oxygen into power, when the box heats up to its operating temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

To get a view of the cost and benefits, eBay installed 5 of the boxes nine months ago. It says it has saved $100,000 USD on energy since. So assuming the maximum cost -- $4M USD -- the investment on a Bloom Box would appear to take 30 years to recoup. EBay says the five boxes generate more clean energy than the company's 3,000 solar panels (assuming a bulk cost of $200/panel, and additional expense that system would run around $1M USD, at a minimum). Given those numbers the Bloom Box certainly doesn't appear to be cheaper than solar power, though it claims to be.

-snip-

The Bloom Box has some additional downsides; for one, it produces carbon dioxide emissions, an alternative energy no-no. However, there's also numerous upsides -- the boxes have a tiny footprint versus alternatives (eBay's solar installation takes "acres and acres" versus the five Bloom Boxes that can fit inside a large room). The device could also be carbon neutral if it used carbon from plant sources, such as algae or switchgrass ethanol. And best of all it can produce at full power 24-7 -- something no solar or wind generator can claim.

This is cool if it were to work, and so is the overall idea of minimizing resources used to grow MJ.
Something that has always bugged me was the gigantic amount of natural resources we use to grow herb, whether it's indoors or out...!

WTF is this? Semi free electricity?

We could have had that 100 years ago when Tesla was here, but the elite sabotaged his work..

We dont need this no,w what we do need is more efficient PROPULSION which can give us free transportation and ability to explore space.

must be a plasma in there somewhere...

I seen the piece on 60 minutes last nite and it looked pretty interesting.....if it can do what they say its gona make a big impact in the near future. He mentioned that a unit to power a single home would currently cost about $3000 which would pay for itself in no time.

Outstanding info....now if we could just unplug from the Matrix

I saw that 60 min. report too, but we have seen a lot of 60 min. reports on amazing breakthroughs such as that cool amazing radio cancer cure just seem to get stuck in the mud and not go anywhere. Lets hope this is an exception to the rule.

Hey gdavid...

I also saw the show with the radio wave cancer cure...fucking amazing it was. It isn't stuck in the mud, it is currently in the required testing phases, which are one of those necessary evil things to judge its safety and such.

60 minutes did an update on their first reporting of this a few months ago. As in most cases, the initial "holy shit we have the cancer cure holy grail" feelings have been tempered somewhat, but that always happens in these kind of situations. The dude who came up with the idea has died from his leukemia, unfortunately...but his oncologist is still as enthusiastic as he was from the start. I think one reason for this is he kept the whole thing more in perspective due to his knowledge of cancer and medicine in general.

desant said:

WTF is this? Semi free electricity?

We could have had that 100 years ago when Tesla was here, but the elite sabotaged his work..

We dont need this no,w what we do need is more efficient PROPULSION which can give us free transportation and ability to explore space.

Click to expand...

Your quote "read my mind." As I was scrolling down, I was trying to recall where it was that I read Tesla came up with a way to transmit energy wirelessly and when he presented his idea, the first response was "then where do we put the meter?" Because it presented profit problems, it was shot down and he was shut up.

Has that really changed in 100 years or so? There'll be some (probably b/s) safety, security, or health propaganda/justification for never letting this thing replace the dirty, costly, but most importantly METERED existing wired delivery technology.

Sounds real good, what they should make next is anti gravity machines and energy to matter converters.

Think I'll have to be reincarnated a few more times before I see that.

yes, nice invention it is, BUT you still have to have natural gas to power it.

Natural gas prices have been increasing over the years dramatically, for no good reason. Natural gas is plentiful and in abundance. Last month my natural gas bill was $70 to heat my water and house, what for when they have a nearly unlimited supply and it is piped into my house. If your street isn't piped for gas, it will cost you at least four times as much.

I think an efficient diesel generator with inverter technology would cost less per kwh than buying that thing and paying for the natural gas, especially if your area isn't piped for it.

Sam, this new technology can also use solar power to provide the fuel it needs. From the article:

"To make power, you'd still need fuel. Many past fuel cells failed because they needed expensive pure hydrogen. Not this box.

"Our system can use fossil fuels like natural gas. Our system can use renewable fuels like landfill gas, bio-gas," Sridhar told Stahl. "We can use solar."

Some solar cells on your roof, you're good to go.

shenanigans... still using gas???

there are TONS of better ways to produce your own electricity. imo, nuclear is the only way to go if we keep these giant "grids". but there is always hydro, geothermal, photovoltaic solar, passive solar, wind...

sounds like a hydrogen fuel cell. when it can crack water to hydrogen efficiently then I'll care. A wood gasifier and a big generator would be way cheaper to build and run. To be off grid under solar or wind you need at least an 80Kwh source. you could get away with 30- 50Kwh if you heat your home with another source or live in a place where you dont need to heat in the winter and dont use AC. Both wind and solar run about $1000 per Kwh plus batteries.