What do you when you're company is hit by recession and each of the employees is extremely important? You cut down costs in other areas. Once such step you can take is the cut down on your power consumption. But how do you ask? Take a few cues from the secret black boxes that eBay uses to have save almost $100,000 in electricity charges that too in nine months alone.

So what is this miracle maker? It's called as the Bloom Box, which is manufactured by green technology company called Bloom Energy. Each box contains stacks of 64 ceramic disks coated with green and black "inks." These disks are separated by cost effective metal alloy plates. Methane (or other hydrocarbons) and oxygen are fed in, the box is heated to reach 1,000 degrees Celsius to produce electricity.

Since the box comes with a $700,000 to $800,000 price tag, it can be afforded by big players like eBay, Google, Staples, and FedEx. The founder of the company K.R. Sridhar believes the technology needs only 5-10years to be available at $3000, but since the current cost and the fact that it emits carbon dioxide, leaves a lot to be desired.

[Fastcompany]