ENERGY EFFICIENCY:GOOGLE, eBay, FedEx, Walmart and Coca-Cola are among a growing list of companies using new energy servers whose development spun out of Nasa's Mars space programme.
Silicon Valley-based Bloom Energy’s technology works by converting gas and air to electricity through a clean chemical process.
Fuel such as natural gas or biogas passes over an anode, while air passes over a cathode. In between the cathode and anode is an electrolyte. Oxygen ions then react with the fuel gas to produce electricity.
It was developed when Bloom Energy chief executive Dr KR Sridhar, a professor of aeronautical and mechanical engineering and former adviser to Nasa, realised that the technology they were working on (using solar energy and water to provide air and transport fuel on Mars) could be applied on earth.
Manufactured using affordable materials (their main components are thousands of flat, solid ceramic squares, made from a sand-like powder), each server provides 100kw of power and takes up the same room as a parking space.
They are very efficient and easy to install and maintain. Also, they can reliably provide power on a constant basis, unlike wind or solar, for example, which are intermittent.
They reduce CO2 emissions, from power consumption, by between 40 per cent and 100 per cent, compared to conventional fossil fuel sources.
Even running on a non-renewable fuel, the servers are about 67 per cent cleaner than a coal-fired power station, the company claims.
Each 100kw unit can power about 100 homes or a 30,000sq ft office building, the company says. The larger a company is, the more units it can install; by placing the units side by side and connecting them up.
Bloom Energy was the first cleantech company that US cleantech venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers invested in, and managing partner John Doerr sits on Bloom Energy’s board along with former US secretary of state General Colin Powell.
“This is a new kind of product announcement,” says Doer. “For years, there have been promises of new energy solutions that are clean, distributed, affordable and reliable; today we learn that Bloom, formerly in stealth, has actually delivered a breakthrough technology. Americans want clean, affordable, energy, 24-7 and all the jobs that go with it.”
