Topic: Advancements in Technology and their implications on Entrepreneurship

THE BLOOM BOX

Introduction:

It is basically electricity in a box! Built with solid oxide fuel cell technology, the Bloom Box is a new class of distributed

power generator, producing clean, reliable, affordable electricity at the customer site.

Figure 1: This little Bloom Box can produce enough power to serve 4 average Indian households!

The Bloom Box is all set to supersede the big power plants and transmission line grid. Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100kW of power, enough to meet the baseload

needs of 100 average homes 24X7, in roughly the footprint of a parking space.

Benefits:

Unlike the conventional way of producing electricity – which consists of multiple conversions of energy from one form to another – the bloom box simply converts the chemical inside the fuel cell into electricity through an electro-chemical reaction producing electrons.

Because of the high efficiency of the one-step conversion the fuel required is less and thus lesser is the amount of emitting gases.

Most importantly it produces electricity without combustion thus getting rid of the pollution related gases.

Like other past fuel cells the bloom box doesn’t require expensive hydrogen as fuel, rather, it’s designed to use – fossil fuels (like natural gas), renewable fuels (like bio gas).

Impact on Entrepreneurship:

Bloom Boxes have already been started using by major companies of the world like FedEx, Wal-Mart, Google, eBay.

1) Lower Costs:

The technology enables enterprises to save money by lowering their electricity costs. They can generate their own electricity for less than they pay their power company. The savings typically provide a 3-5 year payback on their initial capital investment.

Figure 2: The picture shows the 5 Bloom Boxes installed by eBay 9 months ago which have already helped them save $100,000 in electricity costs.

It generates the electricity on-site eliminating the need for costly transmission and distribution infrastructure.

2) Energy Security: Intermittent power cuts can cost enterprises a lot of money. Dependence on the aging grid leaves enterprises exposed to unexpected service

interruptions, and requires costly investments in backup solutions that sit idle most of the time.

Bloom Box enables to generate power on-site, rather than centrally, eliminating the complexity, interdependencies, and inefficiencies associated with transmission and distribution, and shifts control to the enterprise.

Bloom Box is fault tolerant, helping to ensure the highest levels of power availability. They can automatically detect an interruption and cut over from a primary to a backup

fuel source. The problem of variation in voltage over the transmission and distribution infrastructure

results in poor power quality. Bloom generates perfect waveform at the point of consumption. That means perfect power quality.

3) Production of Clean and Environmental Energy:

It promotes social and green entrepreneurship which is the need of the hour.

Enterprises can also cut their CO2 emissions by 40%-100% and virtually eliminate all

SOx, NOx, and other harmful smog forming particulate emissions.

So what’s the big deal, since the Bloom Box still needs fuel – and why not

use the fuel directly to product electricity as is traditionally done? Well,

simply put, the Bloom Box produces more bang (electricity) for the buck

(fuel). The precise numbers haven’t been provided, but roughly, the Bloom

Box is said to produce double the amount of electricity the same fuel can

produce by traditional methods. Plus there is savings in terms of real estate

and infrastructure. 

According to eBay CEO John Donohoe, the company uses five Bloom Boxes

that run on landfill waste-based bio-gas and generate more power than the

company's 3,000 solar panels. A four-unit box, using natural gas, has been

powering a Google data center for 18 months. Ball-park calculations indicate

that a 30,000-square-foot office building would use four of these boxes, each

costing between $ 700,000 to $ 800,000. The unknown factors include how

much fuel it uses, wear and tear, and maintenance. 

Fantastic , I saw the video and it seems out of this world , if true !! imagine reduced number of dams ,

thermal power plants etc etc

CH4