Bloom Energy is a potentially revolutionary way to consume energy. It all started with a University of Arizona professor, Dr. K. R. Sridhar, who was trying to make Mars our second home. However, when funding became scarce, he backtracked his research and realized that the type of technology he was interested in developing could be utilized on Earth. The professor, most commonly known as K.R., and his team had been producing a fuel cell that was capable of generating air and fuel from electricity produced by a solar panel. In 2001 K.R. and his team started the company Bloom Energy, where K.R was named founder and Chief Executive Officer. The goal of Bloom Energy was to create an energy that was clean, affordable, sustainable, and easily accessible for everyone in the world.

After years of research and prototypes, a final product was created. In 2006 Bloom sent its first 5kW field trial unit to the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. After two years of trial runs at the University of Tennessee, and in California and Alaska, the first commercial unit was shipped to Google. Finally Bloom had reached their goal and created an energy that was powerful, efficient, reliable, and economically reasonable. Since then Bloom Energy has gained recognition amongst the energy industry.

Bloom Energy has helped to eliminate millions of pounds of CO₂ from the environment and produced millions on kWhs of electricity for its growing clientele. (1) They are sixty percent cleaner than the average coal fired power plant and while the average chemical power plant has a stationed site that often forces communities to relocate due to toxic fumes, Bloom Energy has the capability to produce power on site on a cleaner level.

 

(1)   “NASA™ Technology Comes to Earth.” NASA Technology Comes to Earth. Bloom Energy, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. <http://www.bloomenergy.com/about/company-history/>.