Chattanooga partnership unveils Bloom Energy Server

Officials and representatives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently inaugurated the City's first Bloom Box, a 100kW energy server poised to become an important alternative energy source for the nation's power grid.

The energy server uses solid oxide fuel cell technology developed by California's Bloom Energy. Researchers from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's SimCenter: National Center for Computational Engineering evaluated the cell's efficiency and will continue to monitor the new installation.
The project is the continuation of a long-standing partnership between the UTC SimCenter, EPB, TVA, and Bloom Energy that began with Bloom's first field trial of its technology in 2006. That successful field trial was a key milestone on Bloom's path to commercialization.

Located on the top floor of the EPB building's parking garage, in downtown Chattanooga, the Bloom Box will be a showcase piece for innovation and for successful collaboration between the public and private sectors. By working closely with TVA, this project also highlights how distributed generation technologies such as Bloom's can be an integral part of a clean smart grid for the 21st century.

Read the full story: http://bit.ly/cvgNnu

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• UTC
• SimCenter
• EPB
• TVA
• Bloom Energy
• Bloom Box
• Bloom Energy Server
• KR Sridhar
• Zach Wamp
• Dr. Harry McDonald
• Chancellor Roger Brown

[ricefarmer]

republicans will shut it down, cause they want more oil money

[SPCServices007]

@1:35 tell me that man is not related to George W Bush lol

[AdamWisehaupt]

The technical inventions of Nikola Tesla should be the issue! -)

[Karabetter]

@merlinspower Unfortunately, not yet. :(

As much as this technology claims to want to get us off the grid, I have a suspicion that the fossil fuel and LP gas producers really don't want us to be producing our own hydrogen from solar. We may not only store it in tanks to use overnight but also start filling our hydrogen powered cars with it. That would get them so depressed that they might pull *their* investments out of this project. ;)

[merlinspower]

@Karabetter I like this question... Good Question! I has been a week since you asked it . Did you get an answer yet?

[Karabetter]

OK, so this is a type of fuel cell. What I want to know is whether, like in other fuel cell designs, can it be run in reverse? In other words, if one were to supply power *into it* from a solar array during the day, would it efficiently produce hydrogen which could be stored and then used as fuel during the dark hours?