The Silicon Valley is full of stealthy start-ups, many working on green technology. One of those firms, Bloom Energy, finally emerged from stealth mode after a decade of development and a tremendous amount of venture funding. Was it worth it? Some Silicon Valley tech firms seem to think so. Find out who in Datamation.
Bloom Energy, a Sunnyvale startup that has been working in stealth for a decade and gone through more than $400 million in venture funding, finally took the wraps off its invention: a fuel cell that can power a home, corporate office or datacenter for what it said is much less cost than competing green energy technologies.
Bloom had its coming out on Sunday night, when it gave an exclusive sneak peek to “60 Minutes.” The formal introduction today took place at eBay’s San Jose offices; eBay is a major tester of the Bloom Energy Server, or “Bloom Box” as it is called. Joining Bloom founder K.R. Sridhar were Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, venture capitalist John Doerr (who was interviewed in the “60 Minutes” piece) and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Bloom has a number of companies testing its Bloom Box energy generators, which are about the size of four regular refrigerators arranged two by two. Each box generates 100 kilowatts of power. Bloom estimates one box can power around 100 U.S. homes.
