The Next Big Thing: Energy in a Box

Photo Credit: Business Week

“It’s about seeing the world as it can be, not as it is.” That is what KR Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, said in conclusion of his 60-minutes interview. Video below the fold

Bloom Energy’s innovation — called BloomBox — sounded a little like the next Google for energy; something out of a science fiction movie. The BloomBox is a layered fuel cell with a ‘secrete’ coating that takes oxygen from one side and fuel on the other. In the middle, there is a beach-sand — I KNOW, a beach sand! — coated ceramic sheet of paper that plays as a catalyst to mix the oxygen and fuel molecules. The mixture at the end of the process will be electricity.

How wonderful is that?

The simplicity of the science might make the whole idea of having an energy in a box a little far fetched. But I tend to believe things when Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the people who funded Google and Netscape, and General Colin Powell come together to say this is a real deal.

The proof is in the pudding, but do I think this be the next big thing? Yes!

I say this for two reasons;

1. I believe the CEO understands what the world needs
The quote I mentioned on top rang a bell when I heard it. The same words were uttered by someone who was equally audacious to change the world before becoming the president of these united states.

2. The ‘distributed’ model
Do you use Wikipedia? The reason why Wikipedia became this dominant was because it relies on a purely distributed model. Instead of having one single source for everything, Wikipedia allows many entry points. BloomBox’s model is the same — to place a BloomBox in everyone’s backyard.

Energy is the cornerstone of any societal progress. This is especially true in this day and age when the world’s large economies become ‘information’ based economies. As companies large and small like ours are on the move towards cloud computing, energy will play an even be more critical role.

BloomBox is now being used by Google, eBay and FedEx.

Stay tuned on Wednesday for the public unveiling of BloomEnergy.