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Interesting story on clean energy

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mrhowell:
http://www.bloomenergy.com/   

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

RayB:
This was posted on Slashdot. Commentators over there estimate Ebay will have them paid for themselves in about 133 years.   :D

Vanguard:
The article I saw said, ebay saved 100K in 9 months. Annualized savings is 133K. Upfront investment is 4 million dollars for 5 units.

That's 30 years to recoup the investment.    Plus, California pays for 20% of the cost since it is a "green" energy.   That brings down the payoff to 24 years.


RayB:
30 years... these things won't fix themselves.

Chemixtry:

--- Quote from: pinballjim on February 22, 2010, 05:29:14 pm ---I was impressed until I read this:

Four units have been powering a Google datacenter for 18 months. They use natural gas, but half as much as would be required for a traditional power plant.




Sounds to me like he's got a more efficient generator, not some limitless free energy device.



--- End quote ---
These are nothing more than fuel cells. Fuel cells have been around for a looooong time. I am writing a grant proposal for my doctoral program based on a SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell). While these have always had great promise there are still a lot of technical hurdles that have to be overcome before we all have these in our homes. One huge problem you run into is contaminants from your fuel streams. Sulfur is a huge problem and deactivates the catalysts typically used in fuel cells. I want this technology to work but i have my doubts.

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