Zack Mahdavi's Blog

Imagine having a box in your backyard the size of a power transformer.  This box would be filled with hundreds of little fuel cells that would power your house for cheaper than your electric company.  If all goes well, the future could be here within a decade.

A startup called Bloom Energy has built an amazing SUV-sized box designed to do just that.  It’s filled with thousands of solid oxide fuel cells pumping out electricity with only a minimal carbon footprint.  The cost currently is $800,000, but the company hopes to get the cost of the device down to a few thousand dollars within a decade. Ebay purchased the device recently and claim to already have saved a couple hundred grand off their electricity costs.

A device like this could really alleviate the growing problem of our decaying power grid.

60 Minutes covered the amazing device this past weekend, and it’s definitely worth a watch.

Tonight’s 60 Minutes included a story by Leslie Stahl on Al Gore’s continued fight for the environment. This piece was incredibly powerful and motivating as it discusses Al Gore’s new, massively expensive ad campaign designed to push enviromental issues to the forefront of our upcoming presidential election.

Will it work? Who knows. Regardless, take the 13 minutes to watch this 60 Minutes story. By the way, this is my first attempt at Flash video (I ripped this story from my DVR), so if the quality is bad, I apologize.