Bloom Box

[jc]

It was on 60 minutes yesterday. They didn't mention how efficient it was or how much exhaust it put out. If the residential model runs on natural gas then I am out of luck. No gas in my neighborhood.

[Europhyllia]

there are actually 6 plants on calaveras 2x420 megawatt natural gas 2x440 megawatt coal, 1x550 megawatt coal, 1x700 megawatt coal, my Dad is a control operator for cps for the past 25 years, they have all kinds of scrubbers they just recently added to meet EPA standards, but it seems like they are always adding stuff

Correct. Primarily coal fueled. Often in set ups like these the gas plant is used for peak times only due to higehr fuel cost.
The new scrubbers are the AQCS (air quality control systems) stuff that has to be added to the coal plants to keep them within EPA standards. Meeting the standards doesn't make them as clean as other sources though. I think the fact that systems have to be added and updated in response to higher AQ standards just show that the AQCS have not in the past and do not currently capture all of the pollutants created by using coal as the fuel. Just my 2 cents. Obviously I am using up some of the Calaveras power generated right now myself... ;)

[Bill S]

The byproduct from the fuel cell is CO2 and water... They aren't real good about mentioning that, are they? Kind of like the hydrogen fuel cells, where they tell people the fuel source is "plain old water". Yeah, after we burn coal to produce the electricity to split the hydrogen and oxygen in that water! There STILL is no free lunch!

[Europhyllia]

There STILL is no free lunch!

There's no free lunch but some come at a higher price (not necessarily $) than others ;)

Here's a really interesting article comparing coal and gas, specifically as it pertains to CO2 emissions:

http://www.grist.org/article/natural...tion-strategy/