After nine years of research shrouded in secrecy, a Silicon Valley tech firm Wednesday took the wraps off a fuel cell that it says can generate energy by combining air and a wide range of fuels without going through the process of combustion. The firm, Bloom Energy, said the solid oxide fuel cell — resembling a Polaroid snapshot both in dimension and thickness — could be a game-changer in the clean technology industry because it can be powered by either fossil fuel or renewable sources in an electro-chemical process that is both cleaner and more reliable than current options. In the company’s plans, thousands of fuel cells would be crammed into a box about the size of a refrigerator called the Bloom Energy Server, each capable of producing 100 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to power 100 average-size homes or a small office building, Bloom said. Unlike solar and wind power, which can be intermittent, the technology can run all day, and customers can earn back the system’s $700,000 to $800,000 cost within a few years through utility bill savings, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Bloom said. Several major companies, including FedEx Corp., Google Inc., Staples Inc. and Wal-Mart […]