Bloom Energy blew through billions promising cheap, green tech that falls short

The last couple paragraphs seem like a bit of non-sequitur compared to the rest of the article. The piece essentially is describing a company that has been operating with losses for years, with liabilities in the billions, that is being target by regulatory agencies for failure to clean up their hazardous tech at the end of its lifecycle, as its CEO makes false statements to investors and the press, while its core technology is being overtaken in many markets by renewables like wind and solar. Not many of those are typically considered positive or hopeful in quality.

Yet despite that (and even with the "if there's a silver lining [...]" caveat), ending the piece on what feels like a hopeful, positive note by the CEO founder talking about how he feels "like [he] has made a dent" just seems like a weird way to go. It seems like there's a reasonable chance that, well, he didn't. That the company hasn't built a sustainable model, and pulled otherwise productive capital, talent, and time into a venture that arguably has not in the last 12 years, and may not in the future, actually make any sort of a dent.

While based on this one article, I wouldn't be bullish on Bloom's future, I'm mostly just commenting on that decision in the writing of the piece. To my mind, it fits oddly with the rest of the structure.

This really annoys me, for a number of reasons. (And yes, this is a rant.)

I first heard of Bloom Energy seven or so years ago, when I worked in Orange County (California). I was at a company where we had a small data center on-site, with a large UPS, but with no generator backup. A Bloom Box would have been perfect as a backup power source, but at the time I looked they were just getting started.

For reference, nearby John Wayne Airport had recently built a cogeneration plant, which provided the majority of the airport's power and air conditioning needs, while still giving them the option of drawing full power from the regional utility. (See https://www.ocregister.com/2011/04/25/31-million-power-plant...) So I was very interested in exploring similar solutions for where I worked, but at a smaller scale: The building already had an emergency generator for essentials (security, emergency lighting, water, and elevators); the only thing missing coverage was the data center. But Bloom was too immature at the time.

And today, I'm lucky enough to be in an area that was not affected by PG&E's recent Public Safety Power Shutoffs (work also was not affected), but there's no guarantee that I'll be similarly lucky next time around. And my apartment is all-electric, with gas being used only to provide hot water. If heating is needed, and the power is out, them I'm stuck.

Until reading this article, I occasionally would think of Bloom Energy, and how a Bloom Box would be nice as a temporary or last-resort thing, where a generator might otherwise be installed. And I was getting annoyed at how some communities banning new natural gas installations would block that, even though PG&E is not really in a state to be trusted.

And now I read this article. And I am really annoyed. No, a Bloom Box is not the best or most efficient technology compared to, say, wind power. But when you have natural gas available, and an unstable electric grid, a Bloom Box always seemed to me to be a good backup power source. Except who knows what's going to happen to them now. Maybe someone will be able to iterate on the technology, and hopefully not become so loaded down with funding/debt that they feel the need to promise the stars.

IIRC, the fuel cells wear out and better technologies are more expensive to produce.

My mom lives in Paradise and she would've bought a FC generator with an ATS if such a mythical creature were affordable and lasted at least as long as a natural gas generator.

It seems like more work needs to be done to produce FC cells that last far longer even if they're physically larger. (Holy Grail / Easier said than done.)

PS: Xfinity (Comcast) goes out within the first 24 hours while cell phone service remains powered in a PSPS. In a real outage, cell phone service lasts some number of hours or a few days. There hasn't been such an event because PG&E has a large basecamp with worker housing and equipment half-way between Paradise and Chico on Skyway.

The most interesting bit seems to be that these boxes are claimed to be more efficient than gas fired power-plants. I find that very hard to believe, but it would be great. Perhaps they don't take into account using waste heat for district heating or something like that.

Making Methane is a promising storage technology for excess renewable energy. Bootstrapping R&D into a more efficient way of turning Methane back into electricity with a few billion dollars doesn't seem to be the worst use of money.

I've been following Bloom Energy for several years. The promises still remain promises. Collin Powell was on the board when I took notice of them first.

Dude should be in prison.