The media bas been a-buzz about the highly secretive Bloom Box after the technology was revealed on this weekend's episode of 60 Minutes (and subsequently introduced to the public at a press event this week.) The device, made by Bloom Energy, is a fuel cell that the company claims will be able to change the way businesses and homes get their electricity.

Founder K.R. Sridhar showed how the tiny, pop tart-looking fuel cell box is created. Ceramic disks are created by baking easily attainable (not to mention abundant) sand. Then, the disks are painted with a special mixture of inks that Sridhar has developed (his "secret sauce"), then placed together, separated by metal alloy plates. Once oxygen is pumped through the cell, electricity results.

According to the company, a box filled with 64 of these disks would be sufficient to power a small coffee house. Two blocks fused together can power the average U.S. home.

Sridhar first developed the technology (or rather something similar) when he worked with NASA. The idea back then was to literally facilitate life on Mars. Ho took the concept, and spend the past decade re-working it to come up with the Bloom Box.

The company already has clients who have been testing out the format for some time now, including some pretty big names like eBay, Google, FedEx, and Walmart. John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, claimed in the 60 Minutes segment that his company has already saved US$100,000 on electricity in the nine months since the boxes were installed.

What about using Bloom Energy in the home? Sridhar, along with his investors, see this as a definite goal. A typical set-up, he explains, might cost $3,000 or $4,000. Will the electricity companies be happy about this? Sure, say investors. Because they'll be able to buy these fuel cells, then resell them to customers.

Much controversy has brewed over the concept: is it just another attempt at making energy production and consumption cheaper and more efficient? Is it all hype? Sridhar has been working secretly on the project for more than eight years now, and has managed to secure US$400 million in investments. Clearly there are those who truly believe that he's on to something big. Stay tuned.

K.R. Sridhar, Founder of the Bloom Box, appears on 60 Minutes to discuss the invention that he's been keeping secret for the past 8 years.

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