Solar-Hydrogen Home Garners Wide Interest and Public Support

Solar-Hydrogen Home Garners Wide Interest and Public Support
Publication Date:05-Aug-2006 10:30 AM US Eastern Timezone Source: National Hydrogen Association
New NHA members EmPower CES and the US Merchant Marine Academy's Alternative Power Program helped renewable hydrogen take a giant leap forward during the 2005 Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The Solar Decathlon is a Department of Energy competition that brings 18 college and university teams to the National Mall in Washington DC to compete in ten contests that measure the ability to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Thousands of people descended on the Mall to visit the homes during the two week competition in October of 2005.
As the Energy Team Leader for the New York Institute of Technology / US Merchant Marine Academy 2005 Solar Decathlon Project, EmPower Chairman & CEO David G. Schieren was responsible for project management and developing the Solar-Hydrogen Fuel Cell power system. Lead Engineer Greg Sachs of the US Merchant Marine Academy's Alternative Power Program was responsible for engineering, installing and operating the advanced hydrogen systems. NYIT/USMMA was the only team that used cutting edge Solar-Hydrogen technology. Key system components included a Plug Power GenCore 5 kW Fuel Cell, a Proton Energy Systems HOGEN 40RE Electrolyzer, and 54 Sanyo HIT 200 Photovoltaics with a nameplate of 11.8 kW.
The Solar-Hydrogen House placed 5th out of 18, a very respectable first entry. More importantly the Solar-Hydrogen Fuel Cell power system was one of a kind and it received incredible attention both in New York and in Washington, DC.
EmPower CES and the USMMA's Alternative Power Program will continue the successful partnership forged during Solar Decathlon project. The Solar-Hydrogen Home is now rebuilt at the USMMA's campus in Kings Point, New York where it will be used for further research, development and demonstration purposes.
To read the entire article, please click here. http://www.fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage5765.html

--Just curious: in what sense is hydrogen considered "renewable". Honestly I don't feel like falling for the hype. I really believe that ethanol from crops is the answer; that, and hybrid systems. Comments?
-- "Steamboat Ed" Haas : Whatever happened to Hacking the Trailing Edge! : Zig Zig Sputnick? www.nmpproducts.com ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

lkgeo1 wrote:

Solar-Hydrogen Home Garners Wide Interest and Public Support
Publication Date:05-Aug-2006 10:30 AM US Eastern Timezone Source: National Hydrogen Association...

Who supports the National Hydrogen Association?
After hearing lots of people talk about hydrogen cars and hybrids and corn at an alternative fuels forum sponsored by a Republican congressman and seeing the movie "Who killed the electric car," it seems to me that oil companies badly want some kind of fuel to pump in all their gas stations, so they are against electric cars, even though they make more sense than the alternatives, from an engineering point of view.
Nick

In article , steamer wrote:

--Just curious: in what sense is hydrogen considered "renewable". Honestly I don't feel like falling for the hype. I really believe that ethanol from crops is the answer; that, and hybrid systems. Comments?

It's just a storage medium -- it's renewable only if the energy that produced it was generated renewably (eg, solar), and even then, it's a lossy system.

Who supports the National Hydrogen Association?
After hearing lots of people talk about hydrogen cars and hybrids and corn at an alternative fuels forum sponsored by a Republican congressman and seeing the movie "Who killed the electric car," it seems to me that oil companies badly want some kind of fuel to pump in all their gas stations, so they are against electric cars, even though they make more sense than the alternatives, from an engineering point of view.
Nick

Gee, Nick.
Have you noticed that the number and quality of service stations has greatly diminished over the last 30 years or so? Used to be a little gas station on every corner, and most of had a mechanic bay. Now they are bigger, further apart, and rarely offer any kind of service beyond a coin-operated compressor to inflate tires.
Big Oil doesn't make much money on the retail end. Service stations represent a lot of overhead.
You don't have to go imagining conspiracies, when a simple explanation will do. That is simply that some sort of liquid fuel in an internal combustion engine is the cheapest and most efficient way to get a motor vehicle down the road, and will continue to be so for some time. Electric propulsion shows some promise, and may already be competitive in the short-range niche, but we simply cannot put all our road transport energy demand onto our current electrical grid and expect it to function.
Gordon Richmond

"Gordon Richmond" wrote in message

but we simply cannot put all our road transport energy demand onto our current electrical grid and expect it to function.

Same goes for our natural gas system.
Vaughn

Gordon Richmond wrote:

... some sort of liquid fuel in an internal combustion engine is the cheapest and most efficient way to get a motor vehicle down the road

I disagree. GM's EV1 got 179 Wh/mile, vs about 500 for today's hybrids...
Nick

Gordon Richmond wrote:
... some sort of liquid fuel in an internal combustion engine is the cheapest and most efficient way to get a motor vehicle down the road
I disagree. GM's EV1 got 179 Wh/mile, vs about 500 for today's hybrids...
Nick

And how much did the EV-1 cost to build, and what would be the replacement cost for the battery pack, if they had remained in service long enough to need such replacements?
For any of us, the cost of energy (fuel) is but a part of the overall cost of vehicle ownership.
If we, as a motorized society, were to switch en mass to electric powered vehicles, there would have to be massive upgrades done to the electrical grid both in terms of generating and distribution capacity. Somebody would have to bear the cost.
Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of electric cars, and I believe there really is a niche for them. But I'm a realist, and I don't see them replacing IC-powered vehicles in the near term. It will be an evolutionary process.
Gordon Richmond

Gordon Richmond wrote:

... how much did the EV-1 cost to build

GM says it spent a total of $1 billion to build 1100 of them.

... and what would be the replacement cost for the battery pack

Dunno.

If we, as a motorized society, were to switch en mass to electric powered vehicles, there would have to be massive upgrades done to the electrical grid both in terms of generating and distribution capacity.

I doubt that.
Nick

wrote in message

Gordon Richmond wrote:
... some sort of liquid fuel in an internal combustion engine is the cheapest and most efficient way to get a motor vehicle down the road
I disagree. GM's EV1 got 179 Wh/mile, vs about 500 for today's hybrids...
Nick
Let me guess .....10hp would pull like a 16hp gas .

So we are talking 7200 watts rolling at 40mph divided by the speed for your 179wh/mile number
Now if you replace batteries and electricdrive in the EV1 with a 10hp diesel That would be 7200 watts rolling at 50mph ( because of the reduced wieght) divided by the speed for 144wh/mile

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Arnold Walker wrote:

... GM's EV1 got 179 Wh/mile, vs about 500 for today's hybrids...
Let me guess .....10hp would pull like a 16hp gas . So we are talking 7200 watts rolling at 40mph divided by the speed for your 179wh/mile number

I don't follow you here.

Now if you replace batteries and electricdrive in the EV1 with a 10hp diesel That would be 7200 watts rolling at 50mph ( because of the reduced wieght) divided by the speed for 144wh/mile

Nor here. "Cheap fuel" is one big advantage of an electric car. The movie "Who killed the electric car" said the EV1 would work for 90% of the US population, who drive an average 29 miles per day. That's 29x179 = 5.2 kWh, ie 52 cents at 10 cents/kWh. An average US household uses about 10K kWh/year, ie 28 kWh/day, so car charging at night might raise their electric bill less than 20%.
Nick