Energize

At a press conference Wednesday, Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy showed off its new, heavily hyped energy technology, which harnesses chemical reactions to create energy. The company's mission: to revolutionize the world's use of energy.

Bloom's main product is the Bloom Energy Server, a generator based around a smart new fuel cell technology. Fuel cells rely upon chemical reactions to generate energy rather than fossil fuels, and as such are considered cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable than the traditional energy sources.

Fuel cell technology has been under development for years, if not decades, primarily concentrating on chemical reactions using hydrogen -- an element that can be volatile and difficult to store. Bloom's fuel cell technology is fundamentally different, running on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels.

The technology has roots in NASA's Mars space program, where Dr. KR Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, was charged with building technology to help sustain life on Mars. His mandate: Use solar energy and water to produce air to breathe and fuel for transportation.

Sridhar's invention converts air and nearly any fuel source -- ranging from natural gas to a wide range of biogases -- into electricity via a clean electrochemical process, rather than dirty combustion. Even running on a fossil fuel, the systems are approximately 67% cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant, explains Bloom. When powered by a renewable fuel, the company's Energy Server can be 100% cleaner. Each Energy Server consists of thousands of Bloom's fuel cells, flat, solid ceramic squares made from a common sand-like "powder."

Bloom Energy states that to date, Bloom Energy Servers, currently in deployment for several Fortune 500 companies, have produced more than 11 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, with CO2 reductions estimated at 14 million pounds.