bloom box

It's barely been a week since a media frenzy marked the public launch of Bloom Energy, which makes a mini power plant known as Bloom Box for homes and businesses. Now, as critics take a closer look at the technology, it seems the bloom is off the box. Kleiner Perkins, the VC firm that backed the project, is learning a lesson about the pitfalls of investing in early-stage clean energy companies -- and raising the question of who should be backing basic energy research.

The Bloom Box sounds like a con-man's dream, but eBay and Google and Walmart are already proving that, yes, these small stacks of material can turn air and many forms of natural gas into emission-free electricity. CBS's 60 Minutes recently toured the plant in advance of the grand unveiling of this...