UL Green Approval

It is good to see that Underwriters Laboratories UL will now test devices and products that claim to be green and if the product is as good as it claims it will get the UL Environment logo.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20308688,00.html?xid=grnewsletter-140108-green-myths

This got me thinking as the Bloom Coffin is an electrical device it must have UL approved components and in total may be UL approved for electrical device safety.   Now we just need UL to do the efficiency tests on the Coffins and compare their results to Bloom’s claims on their website.  I challenge Bloom Energy to send us data that UL Environment tested their Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and the results show a >60% thermal efficiency as Bloom claims on their website under Better Electrons. 

“Higher Efficiency

Bloom Energy Servers convert natural gas or renewable biogas into electricity using a direct electrochemical reaction rather than combustion. This highly efficient process is not bound by the same thermodynamic constraints¹ for creating electricity, and thus enables exceptionally high conversion efficiency. Today, Bloom ships systems with an industry-leading 60+ percent electrical efficiency, based on the lower heating value (LHV) of the fuel — a figure that has increased markedly since our first commercial shipments in 2008. Looking forward, we see a clear pathway to deliver even higher efficiency.”

http://www.bloomenergy.com/clean-energy/

Electrons have spin and the Bloom Better Electrons have even more spin.  Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes is getting wind of the spin Bloom pulled on her in February 2010 when the Coffins were launched with great fanfare on 60 Minutes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bloom-box-energy-machine-unveiled/

It is interesting that the photo in the CBS link has  a white board with the messages Zero Defects and Don’t Make, Don’t Take, and Don’t Pass behind the Gangrene CEO who simply lied through his teeth to Ms. Stahl 4 years ago.   The next episode of the Bloom Coffin will have a white board with Zero Truth. Make it up, Take the SGIP money, and Pass the contributions onto Huffman.

I know for a fact that Ms. Stahl asked Robert Rapier the Chemical Engineer featured in the Cleantech  Crash piece his opinion on Bloom.  Mr. Rapier told me he told Leslie Stahl “it works, but very expensive and overhyped.”  Mr. Rapier was being kind I would have said “it works with much lower capacity factor than claimed, is three times as expensive generating electric power as combined cycle power using the very same natural gas,  they hyped their low emissions which actually are higher than combined cycle natural gas, they hyped their efficiency which is 45.16% on the higher heating value of natural gas, they are not over 60% efficient as they have claimed, they have VOC emissions, they have solid waste that is hazardous and contains sulfur, they stole over $28 million for Delmarva customers in Delaware, and the pilfered as much as $257 million of the SGIP money in California.  Their corporate culture is to pay Mexican welders sub-minimum wages in Pesos for work done in the Bay Area.  They got AT&T, Walmart, Target Stores, EBay, Apple, and myriad other companies to go along on the greenwashing ride.  But they were brilliant in getting young green behind the ears politicians like Jared Huffman, and Jack Markell to give them gobs of money and believe their junk.  They even got you to believe their hype in February 2010 when you helped launch them on this very show.”