Bloom Energy recently unveiled its "Bloom Box", a fuel cell that can be used to power homes, buildings, and other stationary areas of energy consumption. The fuel cells can use hydrogen, methane, or other natural gases which are abundant in the United States. This has the potential to be a disruptive technology within the energy industry (and could disrupt the geopolitical landscape as well).
Google, Fed Ex, and Walmart are all beta-testing the technology and EBay is already using it. However, Bloom Energy is not the only player in this area - interestingly, large telecoms such as Sprint and Vodaphone have invested heavily in fuel-cell technology, acquiring several patents in an attempt to develop clean power for cellular base stations.
As much of the energy industry is shifting toward the service layer, this story reminds us that there is still a great deal of potential in R&D and manufacturing at the bottom of the stack. This is one industry where the hardware is not yet a commodity.
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