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A Silicon Valley start-up is getting ready to unveil an energy device this week that executives say could one day power individual homes and businesses while replacing the traditional power grid.

Bloom Energy, one of the 26 companies named in the World Economic Forum's list of top 2010 Tech Pioneers , took some of the wraps off its Bloom Box in a story that ran last night on the CBS television show 60 Minutes .

An interview with K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, during the piece has created significant online buzz, including descriptions of the Bloom Box device as the "Holy Grail of clean energy."

Bloom Energy is expected to unveil the new device on Wednesday.

Sridhar said the box is mostly a collection of fuel cells that use oxygen and fuel to create electricity without creating any emissions. Oxygen is drawn into one side of the cell, while a fuel, such as a natural gas or bio-fuel, is drawn into the other side. The two combine within the cell and produce a chemical reaction that creates energy without any burning or combustion.

Sridhar said in the interview with 60 Minutes he's hoping that within 10 years Bloom Boxes are placed in backyards or basements to power homes. He estimated the cost of systems for individual homes at about $3,000.

Sridhar also noted that 20 corporate big hitters, including FedEx Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc, eBay Inc. and Google Inc. are already using Bloom Boxes on a trial basis.

Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said in an e-mail to Computerworld that an undisclosed number of Bloom Boxes installed at the company are already supplying a "portion" of the energy needs at its Mountain View campus.

"This is just another on-site renewable energy source that we're exploring to help power our facilities," she added. "We have a 400 kilowatt [Bloom Box] installation on Google's main campus that delivers clean and affordable power. Over the first 18 months, the project has had 98% availability and delivered 3.8 million kilowatts of electricity."

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Bloom Energy Server technology is based upon stacking small fuel cells which operate in concert. Bloom Energy has made a technological advance by developing stacked fuel cells where individual plates expand and contract at the same rate at high temperatures. Scott Samuelsen of the University of California, Irvine National Fuel Cell Research Center questions how long the reliable operational life Bloom Servers will be. "At this point, Bloom has excellent potential, but they have yet to demonstrate that they've met the bars of reliability." Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory expert Michael Tucker told the San Jose Mercury News, "Because they operate at high temperatures, they can accept other fuels like natural gas and methane, and that's an enormous advantage... The disadvantage is that they can shatter as they are heating or cooling."

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Are we really falling for this again? Every clean tech company on the planet says it can produce clean energy cheaply, yet not a single one can. Government subsidies or mandates keep the entire worldwide industry afloat... Hand it to Bloom, the company has managed to tap into the hype machine like no other clean tech company in memory."

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Also on 24 February 2010, Sridhar told Todd Woody of the The New York Times that his devices are making electricity for 8–10 cents/kwh using natural gas, which is cheaper than today's electricity prices in some parts of the United States, such as California. He also said the boxes will have a 10 year life span. The CEO of eBay says Bloom Energy Servers have saved the company $100,000 in electricity bills since they were installed in mid-2009, yet Paul Keegan of Fortune calls that figure "meaningless without the details to see how he got there."

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