Flower power

摘要

"We Believe that we can have the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications." So says K.R. Sridhar, the boss of Bloom Energy, which on February 24th unveiled what it claims is a revolutionary fuel cell. Thanks to such grandiose pronouncements and a vigorous public-relations blitz, the "Bloom Box", as the company's product has been dubbed, has attracted plenty of headlines. But there are good reasons for scepticism. That Bloom is now being promoted so loudly is hardly surprising. The firm, which has kept its work secret for the past eight years, has attracted a hefty $4oom from venture capitalists, including some who bet on the Segway, a high-tech scooter that promised but failed to change the world.