Almost Everything You Want to Know About the Bloom Energy Box [VIDEOS]

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How Does the Bloom Box Create Electricity?

The first question most people ask is: How the heck does the Bloom Box work? While the company understandably isn't going to reveal its trade secrets, it has provided some nice graphics and details on how the Bloom Box generates electricity.

The device is, in fact, a fuel cell, which means it generates electricity through a chemical reaction. In the case of the Bloom Box, fuel is mixed with oxygen and then a reaction is triggered through an electrolyte layer to create electricity. The actual fuel cells are primarily built with compressed sands. The fuel is interchangeable, although natural gas seems to the fuel of choice currently.

This graphic provides a quick overview of the different configurations of the Bloom Box, as well as the basics of how they work:

What the Bloom Box Looks Like

The Bloom Box is already in use at eight major corporations: Google, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Staples, eBay, Cox Enterprises, Walmart and FedEx. All of these boxes are in California due to a hefty subsidy that helps these companies purchase green technologies on the cheap.

Yesterday, I was at eBay's headquarters for the launch of Bloom Energy. During that time, I snuck off and took a short video of the five Bloom Boxes currently in use on eBay's campus. They currently generate about 15% of the power at eBay's headquarters.

Some interesting things I learned about the boxes by being up-close and personal with them: They are definitely not hot, and while they do make sound, it's a lot less than what you'd find at a power plant or a transformer station.

Bloom Box Press Q&A

We had a lot of questions about the Bloom Box, and so did the rest of the press that attended the launch of the event. Thus, Bloom Energy had a 30-minute press Q&A to answer our questions, which included Bloom Energy's CEO and its VP of Marketing, as well as T.J. Rodgers, founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, John Doerr, partner at investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufiled & Byers, and General Colin Powell.

We covered a lot of ground in the 30 minutes, all of which I recorded (apologies for the shaky camera -- I lost my tripod!). We asked them about when we'll see Bloom Boxes in our homes, whether they could be used to power our cars, dived into the technical details of the Bloom Energy Server, how much funding the company has raised (rumored: $400 million), and when Bloom Energy won't need subsidies to survive.

Bonus: At 19 minutes and 25 seconds, I ask KR Sridhar about which fuels Bloom Energy's current customers use and learned that the box automatically knows when its fuel input has been changed.

Colin Powell Speaks about Bloom Energy's Military Applications

What Do You Think?

It's your turn: We want to know what you think of the Bloom Box. From these videos, do you think the device is all hype or that the attention is justified? Would you want to buy one of these devices for your home if it were available, and how much would you pay?