CRI听力: New Green Energy Debuts in US

A secretive Silicon Valley company is promising to bring a new, revolutionary green energy source onto the market. Major companies like eBay and Google are already using the Bloom Energy fuel cells, and are happy with the results.

Our Reporter Li Dong finds out more about use of fuel cells in real life.

Reporter: EBay's headquarters in California are powered by revolutionary new boxy fuel cells that look just like big refrigerators. The innovative green technology stems from Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy.

The company says its fuel cells produce more power with less environmental damage than others on the market because they aren't reliant on just hydrogen to trigger the chemical reactions that create power.

Rather, it can use wind, solar power and whatever else is available depending on the community, although Bloom Energy doesn't offer more details about how that works.

KR Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, says the power is produced when you use it.

"Bloom Energy server is the equivalent of your mobile phone without a wire, compared to the landline telephone that had copper wires. What this is, is producing power at the point that you use it, outside your building - that's called distributor generation and Bloom Energy server does that for you using a fuel cell technology."
The technology is already being used at major companies such as Google and eBay, but analysts warn that the technology has yet to be widely proven.

Bloom Energy's product promises to place cells that can generate huge amounts of power closer to where the power is being used.

Libby Reder, head of environmental initiatives at eBay, says there are no in-between steps between the energy server and its destination.

"They take about 50 percent of the energy we would ordinarily use in this building off the grid, and on a campus-wide basis, it's about 15 percent of the energy that we use or the energy needs of about one of every six employees on this campus."

Michael Kanellos, Editor in chief of Greentech Media says Bloom Energy's fuel box is comparable to solar and wind energy in cost.

"They are saying this can produce power for 9 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that includes, maintenance, repair work, the gas, everything. That puts it comparable with wind and solar, but they are at the first stage of the cost curve, they have nowhere to go but down. Solar and wind have been working on this for awhile, they are a little more mature, so this could slide under."

Sridhar says Bloom Energy can always produce electricity, unlike solar or wind power, which relies on external factors.(www.hXen.com)

"Compared to solar and wind today's businesses needs to make hay when the sun doesn't shine, today's businesses need to sail when the wind is not blowing, we need a 24/7, 365 renewable parcels; Bloom Energy is that."

Bloom Energy says the investment pays for itself in three to five years, but declined to provide further details on how it plans to make its promising fuel cell technology affordable enough for regular people to buy for their homes.