Bloom Box, Bloom Energy: What 60 Minutes Left Out: "60 Minutes" Bloom Box segment Sunday night introduced the world to the previously faceless and intensely secretive company with a very attractive message: cheap, clean energy, which flows almost magically out of the refrigerator the size of the window.
This television debut – a big bucket for CBS News – has led viewers behind the scenes of Bloom Energy, and two of its customers, eBay and Google. But the TV spot, do not tell the whole story. Some pieces of the interviews were Web-exclusive news and other organizations have opened up new prospects in the team for the Bloom Box.
This television debut – a big bucket for CBS News – has led viewers behind the scenes of Bloom Energy, and two of its customers, eBay and Google. But the TV spot, do not tell the whole story. Some pieces of the interviews were Web-exclusive news and other organizations have opened up new prospects in the team for the Bloom Box.
Eight years and close to $400 million later, ultra-stealthy fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is finally ready to officially launch and ditch its "stealth-mode" status. The company started its first ever media blitz on Sunday with a video on 60 Minutes, an article in Fortune, and soon to be followed by the unveiling media event on Wednesday.
But while the public is just starting to hear the Bloom Energy name, greentech watchers have been scrambling for every little bit of information about Bloom Energy for years. Founder K.R. Sridhar told Fortune that the company is going public now because its Fortune 500 customers want to be able to brag about it as a green move. Here's 10 things that you should know about Bloom Energy:
1). It's doing something that many are tackling: While Bloom Energy is now positioning itself as revolutionary — that will replace the power grid no less — fuel cells have been under development by endless amounts of companies for decades. Any consumer electronics company from Samsung to Sharp, or auto maker, from Hyundai to Toyota, has researchers developing fuel cell technology. Fuel cell patents have consistently remained at the top of the list of out of greentech patents filed every year according to Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI). The problem is that fuel cells have remained too expensive. We'll see if Bloom can get those costs down.
2). It's far from a residential play: Bloom's first customers are big tech companies like eBay and Google that have been using the large Bloom Boxes, which cost between $700,000 to $800,000, to power campuses and data centers. But Sridhar tells 60 Minutes that in 5 to 10 years the company hopes to deliver a smaller Bloom box for under $3,000 for the residential market. Both that price tag and that time frame seem waaay too optimistic — I'd say at least double both estimates for a more realistic plan.
3). Kleiner's Big Bet: Bloom Energy was famed venture capital fund Kleiner Perkin's first foray into greentech and Sridhar tells Fortune that he was "the evangelist who opened the company's eyes to its huge potential." Kleiner needs a successful company in greentech to justify its investments post-dot com — will Bloom be it?
4). Bloom Energy IPO?: Even when Bloom was still in stealth an IPO was being discussed. Kleiner partner John Doerr said at an event late last year that he'd wager Bloom will take "nine years to a successful public offering." So, I guess that means one more year to go?
5). Bloom Financials: While Doerr said late last year that Bloom now has "substantial revenues and orders," Fortune reports that according to its VC sources Bloom lost $85 million in 2008. Well, profits haven't stopped other greentech firms from eying IPOs (Tesla). Bloom has reportedly raised close to $400 million in funding.
But while the public is just starting to hear the Bloom Energy name, greentech watchers have been scrambling for every little bit of information about Bloom Energy for years. Founder K.R. Sridhar told Fortune that the company is going public now because its Fortune 500 customers want to be able to brag about it as a green move. Here's 10 things that you should know about Bloom Energy:
1). It's doing something that many are tackling: While Bloom Energy is now positioning itself as revolutionary — that will replace the power grid no less — fuel cells have been under development by endless amounts of companies for decades. Any consumer electronics company from Samsung to Sharp, or auto maker, from Hyundai to Toyota, has researchers developing fuel cell technology. Fuel cell patents have consistently remained at the top of the list of out of greentech patents filed every year according to Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI). The problem is that fuel cells have remained too expensive. We'll see if Bloom can get those costs down.
2). It's far from a residential play: Bloom's first customers are big tech companies like eBay and Google that have been using the large Bloom Boxes, which cost between $700,000 to $800,000, to power campuses and data centers. But Sridhar tells 60 Minutes that in 5 to 10 years the company hopes to deliver a smaller Bloom box for under $3,000 for the residential market. Both that price tag and that time frame seem waaay too optimistic — I'd say at least double both estimates for a more realistic plan.
3). Kleiner's Big Bet: Bloom Energy was famed venture capital fund Kleiner Perkin's first foray into greentech and Sridhar tells Fortune that he was "the evangelist who opened the company's eyes to its huge potential." Kleiner needs a successful company in greentech to justify its investments post-dot com — will Bloom be it?
4). Bloom Energy IPO?: Even when Bloom was still in stealth an IPO was being discussed. Kleiner partner John Doerr said at an event late last year that he'd wager Bloom will take "nine years to a successful public offering." So, I guess that means one more year to go?
5). Bloom Financials: While Doerr said late last year that Bloom now has "substantial revenues and orders," Fortune reports that according to its VC sources Bloom lost $85 million in 2008. Well, profits haven't stopped other greentech firms from eying IPOs (Tesla). Bloom has reportedly raised close to $400 million in funding.
Bloom Box by Bloom Energy Shown on 60 Minutes – More and more companies nowadays are investing in green technology to become energy efficient. One of the rising companies in this field is Bloom Energy, a company based in Sunnyvale California providing solid oxide fuel cell technology and products for distributed electricity and hydrogen generation.
Bloom Energy announced its plans to raise $150 million in sixth-round capital to establish a market for its product called Bloom Box. Bloom Energy says it has booked most of this funding with Advanced Equities Investment. Bloom Energy's planned Initial Public Offering or IPO has been valued at $1.45 billion.
So what is this product called Bloom Box and what makes it one of the most sought after energy efficient device by most huge corporations? Accordingly, Bloom Box is like an industrial-sized refrigerator, that sucks up oxygen on one side and fuel (natural gas, biomass, etc) on the other. Reports say that Bloom Energy bakes sand and cuts it into little squares that are turned into a ceramic, which are then coated with green and black "inks." Using a special process, Bloom Energy creates these ceramic discs and stacks them together interspersed with metal plates of "a cheap metal alloy." The bigger the stack the more power the Bloom Box will create.