Usually, I don’t drag myself into my own blogs but the Bloom Box is the sort of energy project ultimately supposed to be aimed at people — homeowners — like me. Like most homeowners, I am not a tech geek, and, in theory, I am attracted to the idea of the Bloom Box. However, I think I will wait a while longer before I give up on the grid. Techies get too excited about any green breakthrough these days. Responsible homeowners are usually cautious — it’s important to consider carefully all the pros and cons.
Hyped as if it were a major sports event or celebrity scandal, The Bloom Box, as advertised, is a fuel cell. Oxygen and natural gas (or biofuel, I understand) are pumped into the cell, combining in a chemical reaction with the square wafers and creating electricity.
A number of companies, like Wal-Mart and Fedex, are trying out prototypes at a cost of $700,000-800,000 each. Although the Bloom Box (if it works) won’t be coming to my home for years, it’s still worth weighing the pros and cons.
The Pros
One, the grid has problems. And in many places, it’s unreliable — my home is in a rural area and any given snowstorm or thunderstorm, and the power’s out. There have also been questions about the grid system itself. I remember the great Northeast blackout of 2003 that affected a number of states and Canada, and was caused by either an electrical wave or a tree branch, depending on whom you ask.
Second, the electric companies squeeze money unreasonably. Some border on the outrageous. For example, in New York, Consolidated Edison, the city’s electricity monopoly, has had several fairly recent blackouts. One of the worst of these, in Queens a couple summers ago, left thousands of homes and businesses without power for days (in the middle of a city and not storm-induced). The company finally compensated those affected with a pittance and then had the gall to demand a rate hike of the entire city to upgrade the company’s infrastructure, otherwise it might happen again. It’s like the banks.; you’re held hostage by their venality and incompetence. My point is, who wouldn’t want to get away from the electric companies? It’s an emotional reason.
Third, it takes us away from coal, with its unforgivably high carbon emissions plus the filth and environmental destruction mining creates. (My house is also near an area where there used to be a lot of coal mining.)
Fourth, the most cheering thing is not that it makes Americans independent of the grid, but that ideally, if they get the costs down and fuel sources expanded, it could offer parts of the developing world a chance to never have a grid. It’s comparable to how cell phones eliminated the need for physical phone lines in the developing world, saving years of time and billions of dollars.
The Cons
First, a big one is cost. Here’s my math: my Pennsylvania bill charges $.02+ per kilowatt hour. My sister in New York City pays $.09 per kWh. It’s the “delivery charges” and the taxes that get me, sometimes nearly tripling the bill. The Bloom Box will cost, under best case scenario, $3,000. A box will last an average of ten years — $300 a year, plus the cost of fuel. Bloom Box energy is estimated to cost around $.09/kWh after investment. This means some people will save, but some people won’t. Sure, you don’t have the gouging fees, but you could be spending a lot of money for grid-independence. Cost is still the bugaboo for green energy.
It is unclear how much space the Bloom Boxes will take up and how it would be used in densely urban populated areas or apartment buildings.
Coal, which powers many electric plants, provides jobs in a way that green energy does not. Most coal jobs are reasonably low tech, low education and more plentiful than those in green energy. Don’t think the coal lobby will go quietly without a fight.
