Apparently we are getting technology advice from aliens.  LOL just kidding. =)  Buy some energy while your picking up some groceries!

Recently, Bloom Energy has revealed there fuel cell technology to the world.  It looks like Silicon Valley VC isn’t just helping to produce groundbreaking web applications.  It is also playing a part in the green tech boom.  Bloom Energy (Be the Solution) is one of them.  The company has been in operating for eight years, raising $400 million in funding from VCs including Kleiner Perkins (investors in Netscape, Amazon, Google and others).

Right now, the refrigerator size technology, is doing beta testing with some major corporations (i.e Google, Coca-Cola, Ebay and Fedex.) Only, these fortune 500 companies can afford one of these beasts at this point costing about $800,000. Not in my budget yet guys.  It is being developed for our homes in the near future. The goal is to change the way homeowners buy energy.   Its “Bloom Box” houses fuel cells that run on oxygen, natural gas, landfill gas, bio-gas or solar power.  The companies currently using the technology has showed a sizable decline in energy costs and CO2 emissions.  So basically it is an power source that is poised to save us money and better the environment.

Here are some questions you may have about the technology and the answers.

1. When will the Bloom box for the home arrive, and what will it cost?
K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, has said he hopes to see brick-sized energy servers powering homes within 10 years. The price: Somewhere south of $3,000, although it’s unclear what the initial cost might be. Bloom Energy says its corporate customers will see a 3- to 5-year payback on their initial investment.

2. How durable would it be?
Fuel cell technology has been around for decades — it was even used during the Apollo moon missions — but it’s unclear just how reliable Bloom’s technology is. The Energy Server uses an electrochemical process to generate electricity, and it operates at extremely high temperatures. Could a home energy server last at least 10 years? A shorter lifespan might severely limit cost savings for consumers.

3. Buy or lease?
A lot of homeowners probably won’t want to shell out a few thousand dollars for a newfangled energy device. Perhaps your friendly power utility might lease a Bloom server to you and handle whatever maintenance tasks are required. Then again, would this business model kill the cost benefits for homeowners?

4. Would I be able to sell energy to the grid?

Yes! Let’s say you’re using only 75-percent of the energy your Bloom box produces. Why not sell the excess power back to your local utility? If feasible, the energy server might actually help defray a homeowner’s power costs.

5. What about future applications?
A Bloom box for the home makes sense. But what about other power-hungry devices? Automobiles, for instance. A brick-sized Bloom box is the right size for a car or truck. Heat dissipation might be a serious issue, however. Laptops and cell phones? Unlikely.

Q&A provided by msnbc.com

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