(Bloom Box) An Open Letter to John Doerr Regarding Bloom Energy

[kristopher]

John Doerr is a "Silicon Valley moneyman" who opined in an oped that the Bloom publicity barrage was "like the Google IPO". The author of this piece, a veteran of the energy industry deeply involved in the market effects of energy policy decision-making.

Dear John,

I want to congratulate you and all your colleagues at Bloom Energy. Both for putting on a great show over the last several days, but more importantly for having the fortitude necessary to make it to this point. I am sure that you and KR are acutely aware that you are standing on the shoulders of many good technologists from the past.

...First, the technology is not really all that disruptive. As a matter of fact, when Clayton Christensen published his first book (1997), he spoke at a local angel investors group in Palo Alto. He mentioned that someone told him "fuel cells were a new, disruptive technology for the energy business." He looked a little sheepish when I told him that fuel cells had been around forever.

...a 650-kilowatt Caterpillar genset fueled with natural gas and backed up by a 500-kilowatt diesel genset and all the necessary electric panels costs under $1 million. Home Depot had four similar systems operating from 2004 to 2006 around New York City. Gas prices were about $6.50/Mcf (Mcf = 1000 cubic feet) at the meter and the cost of generation was about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Home Depot didn't purchase any power from ConEd and saved $30,000 per year (about 10 percent) for each of the stores.

...Yes, it replaces the need for big power plants. But it uses natural gas. Let me say that again. It uses natural gas.

Lots more at: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/an-open-letter-to-john-doerr-re-bloom-energy

The bottom line: "So the Bloom Servers really don't provide such a big disruption in the business of distributed power, and maybe not all that much of a technology disruption."