Quote:
Originally Posted by Lagnath
Your correct. The only immediate positive feature is that you can defer creating the power until needed and save on infrastructure costs and the losses associated with moving power from the source to your home. You can also capture waste heat to use for heating and, with some electricity as well, cooling. That isn't the source of the my concern.
My concern lies with the fact that you need gas in order to power this type of fuel cell. In this case the most likely source of that gas for Americans and most other countries is natural gas. Currently natural gas is the source for roughly 25% of America's energy. We're still left with the basic problem of using a fixed resource to power our homes.
We need a very in depth analysis in order to gauge whether there will be any actual cost savings from moving around where we spend or energy dollars. There may come a time when the costs are low enough that this technology will be perfectly practical. Until I see good numbers I'm skeptical that this technology is either cost efficient or scalable.
|
The good part is there is already infrastructure in place to move the fuel around. Hydrogen powered fuel cells would require an all new and very expensive infrastructure, higher pressures and much more leak-proof. This is a good interim solution, one which might take only a short time to be effective, standing in while we work on developing a more permanent renewable solution.