Bloom Energy is now offering companies 10-year electricity contracts for its Bloom Box fuel cells, without an upfront payment for the Bloom Box itself, which can cost up to $800,000.

Companies like Walmart, Staples, Coca-Cola, Caltech, Kaiser Permanente and BD have already signed up for the program called "Bloom Electrons" that promises cleaner electricity at prices lower than standard power from the grid.  Lux Research has done the math and figured with government incentives and subsidies, the cost of electricity from a Bloom Box over ten years would come out to $0.08/kWh to $0.10/kWh compared to the average retail electricity costs of about $0.11/kWh, but in states without heavy subsidies, the costs would be more expensive at $0.13/kWh to $0.14/kWh.

The Bloom Box fuel cell uses methane from natural gas or biogas to produce electricity.  Check out our previous posts on Bloom Energy for all the details.

via Giga Om

Southwest Airlines has rolled out a new set of guidelines for flight paths and landings for its aircraft at 11 airports that has resulted in fuel savings of five to 15 percent per flight.  The new guidelines called Required Navigation Performance (RNP) could be introduced to all airports and airlines in the coming years.

The RNP procedures change flight patterns in two major ways:  they allow aircraft to track much tighter flight paths than current traffic control systems require and they also call for a continuous glide down to landing opposed to the punctuated, step-down approach mainly used.  These seemingly small tweaks have added up to major fuel savings -- already saving Southwest $11 million in fuel costs a year just at the initial 11 airports and could save up to $60 million a year when extended to all of its airports.

In an industry that accounts for two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, those fuel savings will also amount to a nice reduction in emissions.

GE Aviation has been testing RNP technology for airplanes and Boeing has outfitted 345 of its 737-700s with the technology supporting those flight patterns.  The Federal Aviation Administration is hoping to get RNP procedures, as well as other efficiency measures, into all of the country's airports soon, although the upgrade and requisite training will likely cost $6 billion - $7 billion.

via Earth2Tech