Fuel Cell | |||||||||||||||||
I would like to see Fuel Cell technology makes it to residential energy needs. Imagine using Hydrogen to generate electricity for home and use the water by product to, let's say, water the herb garden.
poosana, Oct 01 2003
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Read the papers (especially the Economist), it is on the way (Where will you buy your hydrogen...)
Remenber: Hydrogen is not a source of energy, it is a way of storing it... To produce hydrogen (with electrolysis) you need energy, and this energy can be a clean energy (e.g. thermal energy like they use in Iceland).
Michiel's comment is spot on. This point is often lost.
You can convert Natural Gas to the elements required for a fuel cell. The Fuel Cell process created heat, so you might be able to use that to help you heat your home as well.
I do not think this technology is ready for market yet, but I have heard that a fuel cell that runs on natural gas (which it internal converts to hydrogen before use) can convert as much as 70% of the natural gas energy to electricity. For places like California, where over 40% of electricity comes from natural gas, a direct comparison is very relevant. When a natural gas power plant is used to make electricity, generation and transmission losses cause only about 30% of the natural gas energy to reach the end user. Therefore, even a natural gas fuel cell would be a great improvement over taking electricity off the grid. As far as I know, most of these plants do not even use cogeneration.