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Now this seems promising…
Posted by Duncan on August 1st, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) – A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.
A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.
With this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to power the process that produces the fuel, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.
Apparently the technology will be available for residential use by the end of the next decade, according to the article. I am thinking sooner since the entire “eco-chic” movement has created this “Save Gaia” craze. And if it is cost-effective, then I’d install it at my house as well. Free energy? I can store it for use at night? Hells yeah!!
Ofcourse, that would mean less $$$ to my power company, which would mean they’d have to cut jobs, the entire power industry might collapse. Sooooooooooooo, perhaps this technology will face a fight from lobbyists who will push Congress and the White House into a bunch of regulations and red tape to take the cost-effectiveness right out the window….
August 1st, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hehe. Don’t laugh at yourself. There is a HUGE lobby that rallies against any form of energy production that costs small amounts of money. We have a guy in my town who has solar panels on his underground house- the roof sits above ground and is all solar glass panel.
The shit he went through to get the panels…to produce his own heat…the taxes he has to pay to “supplement” the Public Service company in my state….
It’s incredible.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Yep. Once again I think this energy crisis is more about controlling the populace then any true love of the Earth. I’m all for free energy… I just don’t think anyone in our government, either side of the aisle, truly is.