Distributed grid model? by Tony Green

When I read about Bloom Energy’s “Bloom Boxes “, I thought,” Wow, is fuel cell technology, at last, on its way?” Fuel cells have been discussed for years as a potential source of energy but the technology was not at a place so it could achieve commercial adoption.

The reason for this, to a certain extent, is the catalysts required to convert hydrogen and oxygen to its by-products of water, heat and electricity are very expensive. The breakthrough Bloom has made to allow using sand as the catalyst which is readily available and therefore much cheaper than the expensive metals which comprises today’s catalysts.

Once I read further I learned EBay, Cypress, and Google were using the fuel cells to save their companies a large amount of money on their electric usage. In a sense the fuel cells are providing a local source of power for their facilities which was renewable.

Then the light came on about the bigger meaning of this announcement. The greater issue is the question of whether this be a new proposed model of a distributed power grid? The idea is instead of today’s model where power is produced in large quantities and transported to the location where electricity is needed the sources might be produced locally in close proximity to where the demand is generated. Will this be a trend of the future?

This potential was affirmed when I heard about the idea of building miniature nuclear power plants, designed not to provide large amount of power but to supply enough for a local grid. These mini nukes, as they were referred, would generate the power, which would be renewable, needed to provide electricity on a local level.

The need to overhaul the transmission grid of electricity to support Smart Grid technology had been discussed and is covered in President Obama's plan. Transmission lines are expensive and will take years to build. In addition the policy and regulation required would mean a decade or so would transpire from the plan to the actual building of the transmission lines.

Is this another option which would allow renewable energy to ease the pressure the oil shortage while making the world a better place? It seems logical to me this is something we should all seriously investigate. What do you think?