Originally published October 1 2003
Coming soon: your very own residential power plant
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
This is going to drive electric companies crazy: residential fuel cells that run on hydrogen gas (propane works just fine) and generate electricity for the home. Availability of these fuel cells is just around the corner, and when they shift into mass production, you'll see an increasing number of households going off the grid.
This is sheer horror for power companies. Fewer customers means higher per-household overhead for their fixed costs. It also means the companies no longer have a monopology over demand for electricity and now have to compete with an alternative technology.
To make matters worse, residential fuel cells have no moving parts, so you can't sock it to consumers with ongoing maintenance costs and $80 / hour repairmen.
Residential fuel cells are good for consumers, but hated by power companies. Why? Because they work better. This is stiff competition for power companies. Besides, as the Northeast blackout proved, centralized power coordination is less than perfect. Expect more blackouts to come, and once residential fuel cells are available, every blackout that receives national news coverage will cause a surge in fuel cell sales.
Residential fuel cells sound almost too good to be true. NIST will submit its draft fuel cell test procedures and rating methodology to a standards committee composed of industry, independent standard organizations, government and academic representatives. With consensus procedures in place, fuel cell manufacturers should be able to evaluate and improve the electrical and thermal energy efficiency and output of their products. Ultimately, consumers will be able to use NIST-developed performance ratings to understand the financial costs and benefits of fuel cells operated in specific geographic and climate conditions, at different times of the year, and for different purposes such as heating or electricity generation.
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