I am amazed at the religious zeal for certain energy concepts that seems all too eager to look past the incentives necessary to make things acceptably economic to you and me.
When I started my career in energy more than 40 years ago, fuel cells were declared to be “about 5 years off.” Now, it seems they are just a bit closer. But, the key to fuel cells has always been the same: a source of hydrogen. If you start with natural gas, you have the obvious problem of where did the carbon go.
Now, we have a crowdsourcing site making claims that are just as absurd … but harder for the average person to understand. As you play the video on this site, pay special attention to where the hydrogen is going to come from. Some of you probably already get this from the title of the blog. Their answer is water. They are going to split water into hydrogen and oxygen … perhaps from hydroelectric production so they can maintain the claim of zero emissions.
But, that hydro is already in the market producing valuable goods and services directly. Now, you are converting it back into primary fuels … with an associated loss. And, how can the hydrogen compete with gasoline? And, how can a fuel cell compete with a simple electric motor or an internal combustion engine. Remember, if you have a source of hydrogen, you can run the engine in your gasoline car with that by changing the carburetor setup.
Oh, Joel, stop being so negative …
I am going to follow this to see if people take the bait. Sad commentary on the ethics of those making this offer. Anyone with reasonable knowledge knows this is a bad idea economically.