The Bloom is Off Bloom Energy. In 2. 01. 0, fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy unveiled its Bloom Energy Server. The unveiling and subsequent press attention claimed that these Bloom Boxes were green, efficient and represented the future of energy production. But three years later it appears that Bloom Energys success can be attributed to savvy PR and government subsidiesnot a superior product. After reviewing Blooms products in the real world, it appears that not only are Bloom Boxes functionally the same as natural gas power plants, but they are less efficient. It Started with a Fawning Media. Kellogg Ready Set Go Modified Sports Programme. Bloom Energy generated buzz in 2. Adobe Page Exporter Utility' title='Adobe Page Exporter Utility' />QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and. Cela fait plus de 10 ans que jexplique qui veut lentendre, que les choix colorimtriques de Nikon sont assez discutables que leur bleu du ciel n. Okino software is not something which you would normally download just to kick the tires and see if it can load in the CADDCC file which you may have been blindly. Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl became the first journalist to tour the Sunnyvale, California headquarters and look inside the top secret Bloom Box. Stahls piece, however, was much closer to advertising than journalism. For example, Stahl starts, In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source thats inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 1. 00 start ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention. Stahl, however, leaves out key details about how the Bloom Box works. Bloom Boxes are fuel cells, which are not new technology. The first fuel cell was invented in 1. NASA was the first organization to use them commercially in spacecraft. Bloom claims to have invented a new technology that makes its fuel cells more efficient, but the company has not changed the basics of how fuel cells work. Bloom Boxes, and other similar fuel cells, convert combine methane ie. Functionally, this is no different from a regular natural gas power plantnatural gas is in the input and electricity along with carbon dioxide and water vapor are the outputs. In other words, at their core, Bloom Boxes are small natural gas power plants. Adobe Page Exporter Utility' title='Adobe Page Exporter Utility' />But instead of converting fuel to electricity through combustion, they convert fuel to electricity through an electrochemical reaction. Minutes failed to explain this critical information about Bloom Boxesthat the boxes are essentially natural gas power plants with the attendant carbon dioxide and water vapor emissions. But 6. 0 Minutes is not alone in not being completely forthright in explaining what Bloom Boxes do. Apple recently completed a new data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Apple claims Our Maiden data center is supplied by 1. Apple gets electricity from an on site fuel cell installation of Bloom Boxes and a solar array see Apples diagram below. Again, this is marketing hype. While Apple claims their Bloom Boxes produce renewable energy, they admit in the small print that the fuel cell installation uses directed biogas. Here is an explanation from Giga. OM of what Apple is actually doing In Maiden, Apple is selling the power from the fuel cells to the local utility, so it wont necessarily be using the fuel cell energy onsite to power the data center. The fuel cells will use biogas, and Apple can earn money by selling the power and associated Renewable Energy Credits to Duke. The biogas used will come from landfills, and will be directed biogas which means it will be injected into natural gas pipelines and not used directly in the actual fuel cells at the site. In other words, Apple will purchase biogas from landfills and that biogas will then be put into the regular natural gas transmission network. Apples Bloom Boxes will run on natural gas from the regular natural gas transmission network, including regular natural gas and a small amount of biogas. In Apples case, using Bloom Boxes is no different from just buying power from a regular natural gas power plant. Adobe Page Exporter Utility' title='Adobe Page Exporter Utility' />But Apple, Bloom and others apparently think it creates positive press to use Bloom Boxes rather than regular natural gas power plants. Blooms good PR extends beyond Apple. A number of well known companies have purchased Bloom Boxes, including Adobe, Fed. Ex, Staples, Google, Coca Cola, and Wal Mart. One reason these companies signed up is because of government subsidies. As 6. 0 Minutes explains, In California 2. In other words the price is cut in half. Getting the price cut in half definitely makes expensive energy technology look appealing, especially if it has the veneer of being green. While Bloom Boxes arent green unless you consider natural power plants green, the most important question is whether Bloom Boxes are efficient. According to 6. 0 Minutes, Google has some Bloom Boxes that use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant. The claim that Bloom Boxes are efficient does not stand up to scrutiny. Is Bloom Green Unboxing Bloom Energys Costs. A couple of engineers in California decided to compare Blooms energy efficiency with a cogeneration facility running on natural gas. These two engineers, Bob Spitzka and James Hall, have worked on the feasibility and design of nearly 1. Bloom compared in terms of efficiency. After all, as 6. 0 Minutes noted above, Bloom Boxes received subsidies because they are perceived as green. Spitzka and Hall find that conventional cogeneration, which also produces usable heat, can achieve better CO2 reductions than Bloom Energy fuel cells when operating on the same fuel. The following chart compares a cogeneration unit to a Bloom Energy unit, each rated at 1. As the chart shows, a conventional cogeneration unit would cost 5. Bloom Energy unit. Moreover, the Bloom unit actually increases CO2 emissions by 9. Bloom Energys claims that Bloom Boxes are better for the environment. Moreover, cogeneration is nothing new the technology has existed for more than a century, yet these old units cost less and are more efficient than Bloom Energys Bloom Box. Spitzka and Halls paper is not the only examination of Blooms efficiency and cost. In 2. 01. 2, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority VTA considered entering into a contract with Bloom Energy to purchase a 4. Bloom Energy fuel cell facility after receiving a 7. U. S. government more on that later. VTA would sign a 2. Purchase Power Agreement with Bloom, which meant VTA would agree to buy power from Bloom, while Bloom would cover installation, operation, and maintenance costs. This type of arrangement would reduce VTAs up front costs and minimize risk to the agency. Includes the history of the town, fire and police departments, and other information. CBP has been entrusted with enforcing hundreds of laws for 40 other government agencies, such as the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U. S. Department of. At the time, Rep. Anna Eshoo D Santa Clara hailed the project, This funding will help reduce VTA bus emissions in a cost effective way by using new, cutting edge fuel cell technology, developed right here in Californias 1. Congressional District. A green economy is a healthy economy. With a 7. California Public Utilities Commission, this seems like it should be a done deal. But in March 2. 01. The Murder At The Vicarage Pdf. VTA General Manager Michael Burns advised the VTA Board of Directors to reject the Bloom Energy deal. In his letter, Burns explains the Power Purchase Agreement was deemed not feasible. A third party group was going to provide the financing, but the financiers backed out, leaving the VTA with two options selling bonds to fund the project, or paying for construction and maintenance of the facility themselves. Burns thought both options were too expensive and risky. The ill fated VTA arrangement exposes the real costs of buying Bloom Boxes. According to VTA, a 4. KW system would cost 5. KW in capital costs. To put this in perspective, conventional combined cycle natural gas plant only costs 1,0. KW in capital costs. Not only are the capital cost high, but Bloom Energy wanted to charge VTA 4.