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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE BLOOM ENERGY LAUNCHES ADVANCED FUEL CELL loom Energy Corporation, a Bite Valley-based company, announced recently the availability of the Bloom Energy Server™, a patented solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology that provides a cleaner, more reliable and more affordable alternative to today’s electric grid as well as traditional renewable energy sources. The Bloom Energy Server provides distributed power generation, allowing customers to create their own electricity onsite efficiently. Built using abundant and affordable materials, Bloom's fuel cell technology is fundamentally different from the hydrogen fuel cells that most people are familiar with. The Bloom Energy Server is distinct in four primary ways: it uses lower- cost materials, provides unmatched efficiency in converting fuel to electricity, has the ability to run on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels, and is more easily deployed and maintained. Unlike traditional renewable energy technologies like solar and wind, which are intermittent, Bloom’s technology can provide renewable power 24/7. Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100 kilowatts (kW) of power in roughly the footprint of a parking space. Each system generates enough power to meet the needs of approximately 100 average US homes or a small office building. For more power, customers simply deploy multiple Energy Servers side by side. The modular architecture allows customers to start small and "pay as they grow". Customers announced at the launch include Bank of America, The Coca-Cola Company, Cox Enterprises, eBay, FedEx, Google and Walmart. "Bloom Energy is dedicated to making clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world," said Dr K. R. Sridhar, principal co- founder and CEO of Bloom Energy. "We believe that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications. Just as cellphones circumvented landlines to proliferate telephony, Bloom Energy will enable the adoption of distributed power as a smarter, localized energy source." relying on combined heat and power schemes. But until now, there were significant technical challenges inhibiting the commercialisation of this promising new technology. Bloom has solved these engineering challenges with breakthroughs in materials science and revolutionary new designs. From Powder to Power Founded in 2001, Bloom Energy can trace its roots to the NASA Mars space program. For NASA, Sridhar and his team were charged with building technology to help sustain life on Mars using solar energy and water to produce air to breathe and fuel for transportation. They soon realised that their technology could have an even greater impact here on Earth and began work on what would become the Bloom Energy Server. The Bloom Energy Server converts air and nearly any fuel source— ranging from natural gas to a wide range of biogases—into electricity via a clean electrochemical process rather than dirty combustion. Even running on a fossil fuel, the systems are approximately 67% cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant. When powered by a renewable fuel, hey can be 100% cleaner. Each Energy Server consists of housands of Bloom's fuel cells— lat, solid ceramic squares made rom a common sand-like "powder". "Today we are witnessing something special," said John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a Bloom Energy board member. "This is a new kind of product announcement... For years, there ave been promises of new energy solutions that are clean, distributed, affordable, and reliable; today we earn that Bloom, formerly in stealth, as actually delivered..." (Source: Bloom Energy press release, 24 February 2010, plus Products section, http://www.BloomEnergy.com) on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells For decades, experts have agreed that solid oxide fuel cells hold the greatest potential of any fuel cell technology. With low-cost ceramic materials and extremely high electrical efficiencies, SOFCs can deliver attractive economics without we Two 100-kilowatt Bloom Energy Servers, as the company calls them, at a site in California. 50 * NEXUS APRIL - MAY 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com