Bloom Box Changes The Energy Game

The Bloom Box was revealed today at eBay's headquarters in California. Bloomenergy is pioneering a new high efficiency, affordable energy solution that is already being implemented in major corporations like eBay HQ, Bank of America, Staples Walmart, and other huge names. The solution is interesting and potentially really game-changing. Just one Bloom energy server can power a 30K sq. ft. office or about 100 Average US homes.

The system works by circulating fuel through a chamber containing an Anode, Cathode, and Electrolyte where it reacts with air producing electricity. Just one of these 100 kilowatt systems is enough to power an entire supermarket, and one solution is enough to power an entire data center and campus, like those of the companies mentioned earlier. The possibilities created by the technology are absolutely mind-blowing and I can't wait to see BloomBoxes in a real-world scenario. There's no word yet on when something like this will be available to Joe Homeowner, but when it is, you can be sure I'll be in line for one.

Check out a sweet infographic on how the technology works after the jump and head to the gallery to see some photos from the event. 

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Two Mysterious Google Developments

Earlier today, Google rolled out an update to their popular (free) Google Docs service. In the coming weeks (I don't have it just yet) Google Docs users will be able to upload their own files of any persuasion to a shared folder for collaboration. Since Google Docs supports files up to 250MB in size for documents, they figured why not open up the doors for all kinds of file storage? Is this a harbinger of GDrives to come?

Well, according to Google, no. But it sure does seem a lot like it. Even the pricing is competitive. Users get 1GB free and it's only $.25/GB after that. Enterprise users can pay $17/yr for 5GB if they're into that.

And that's not all that Google has been up to. On December 16, Google incorporated a subsidiary in Delaware called Google Energy. So, open source energy, right? Well, probably not. What's more likely (according to CNET) is that the life-running behemoth is looking to get closer to carbon neutral, considering how much power their servers use.

Do you have the GDrive yet? And what do you make of this Google Energy business?