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Long-anticipated fuel cell unveiled
February 25, 2010
Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley firm, says its solid oxide fuel cell could be a game-changer in clean technology because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources.
Tiffany Hsu, LA Times
After nine years of research shrouded in secrecy, a Silicon Valley tech firm Wednesday took the wraps off a fuel cell that it says can generate energy by combining air and a wide range of fuels without going through the process of combustion.
The firm, Bloom Energy, said the solid oxide fuel cell—resembling a Polaroid snapshot both in dimension and thickness—could be a game-changer in the clean technology industry because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources in an electro-chemical process that is both cleaner and more reliable than current options.
In the company’s plans, thousands of fuel cells would be crammed into a box about the size of a refrigerator called the Bloom Energy Server, each capable of producing 100 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to power 100 average-size homes or a small office building, Bloom said.
