The promise of distributed power: the Bloom Box and more

At Future Exploration Network, one of our roles is to help clients understand the technologies that have the potential to dramatically disrupt existing industries and structures.

Distributed technologies which bring power and manufacturing to the local level, or even the home, definitely fall into that category. Modern economies are largely based on centralized power generation on an enormous scale, combined with power distribution networks taking that to the home.

For decades people have looked at the possibilities of fuel cells which allow homes or neighborhoods to generate their own power. Fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy , despite being largely in stealth mode, was named in the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers 2010 list. Last night CBS News ran a 13 minute segment (embedded below) devoted to Bloom Energy, suggesting it has the potential to transform how we use energy.

It is possible that Bloom Energy’s technology will prove the breakthrough required to make distributed energy possible. It may not fulfil its promise, either in the technology itself, the ability to scale, or being able to drive prices down sufficiently. However the progress made, together with the global attention, is certainly providing a major push to the widespread commercialization of fuel cells.

The implications of distributed power impact not just the power industry, but also automotive and transport, construction, and in particular urban planning. Companies in these sectors need to fully understand what rapid uptake of fuel cells could mean for them and how they should respond.

Another element of what I call ‘Distributed Everything’ is distributed manufacturing, potentially down to the home level. More on that another post.