Man makes a better alternative energy solution

[WouldYouKindly]

http://energy.aol.com/2011/08/13/completely-off-the-grid/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%7C87592

According to his words, he thinks he's being watched, as in under surveillance by the fossil fuel based energy business.

Also, he used to have a small 250k subsidy, but that's been cut by NJ even though his system could result in energy independence for, well, the entire fucking world.

If we focused our efforts on generating power like this, we could save a lot of money on things like heating oil, natural gas, and coal for power plants. The only problem is it takes a lot of space, both for the solar panels and the hydrogen tanks.

WTF Captcha?

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I'm betting that guy is either going to disappear, or his invention will go nowhere. That's usually what happens whenever a new and totally awesome technology comes out.

....Why yes, I DO think that major corporations are not above murder to keep their stranglehold on the market! How did you know?

 

[Tanakh]

WTF Captcha?

Offtopic

OBV "DELTAp^m yeswit"

Sigh, what do they teach kids this days

Also, AFAIK google captchas are made to help convert book scanning into text, so don't rage with the weird stuff, you are helping preserve human knowledge (well, for google, whatever).

Offtopic

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Well it's fantastic that it works. Still doesn't solve the issue that most people don't have the space in their yard to install something like that, wouldn't be able to afford to anyway, and would still prefer our yards to be yards rather than power plants.

Still, I guess nothings ever perfect, and I've been saying for a while now that when it comes to renewable energy and protecting the environment enthusiastic individuals taking themselves off the grid are going to be far more effective than governments will ever be.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Hold on, how does he "convert" the energy created in PV cells into hydrogen fuel cells?!?

As far as I understand the technology, PV cells create "raw" electricity, and Hydrogen fuel cells hold hydrogen. Surely this is just like saying a guy is storing his excess electricity in petrol tanks; that's pretty freaking impossible unless he has some way of using the electricity to generate more hydrogen.

I don't know, I'd have to research this more to be sure, but my initial thoughts on this are that his off the grid system makes absolutely no sense!

EDIT: Ahh, someone mentioned electrolysis, aye, that would work. Although it would be darned inefficient, and as the article says, the whole setup would require a large amount of land, a huge initial cost, and the ever present (although very unlikely) danger of igniting a massive container of compressed hydrogen. KABLAMO!

 

[infohippie]

Hold on, how does he "convert" the energy created in PV cells into hydrogen fuel cells?!?

As far as I understand the technology, PV cells create "raw" electricity, and Hydrogen fuel cells hold hydrogen. Surely this is just like saying a guy is storing his excess electricity in petrol tanks; that's pretty freaking impossible unless he has some way of using the electricity to generate more hydrogen.

I don't know, I'd have to research this more to be sure, but my initial thoughts on this are that his off the grid system makes absolutely no sense!

You can electrolyse water into oxygen and hydrogen, although the energy losses due to entropy are substantial.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Snip

http://energy.aol.com/2011/08/13/completely-off-the-grid/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%7C87592

According to his words, he thinks he's being watched, as in under surveillance by the fossil fuel based energy business.

Also, he used to have a small 250k subsidy, but that's been cut by NJ even though his system could result in energy independence for, well, the entire fucking world.

If we focused our efforts on generating power like this, we could save a lot of money on things like heating oil, natural gas, and coal for power plants. The only problem is it takes a lot of space, both for the solar panels and the hydrogen tanks.

WTF Captcha?

Erm, we already use this. It's called electrolysis. It uses power generated by the solar panels to split the oxygen and water molecules apart. When you mix them together again, they generate power. It's no more than a fairly efficient high-yield battery. NASA have been using fuel cells on satellites and probes for quite a few decades.
You can even buy electric cars that run on hydrogen, using oxygen in the air to react with it.
what exactly is so new about this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salt-Water-Fuel-Cell-Car/dp/B004PBWQTS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1313716968&sr=8-3

A toy car that runs on the same source.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Maybe he should try to contact a democratic country, not one run by corporations, republicans and personal greed.

 

[Zantos]

Last I heard, hydrogen storage was still far too ineffective and expensive to use on a mass scale. I'd rather take Fermi's method.

 

[synobal]

Hold on, how does he "convert" the energy created in PV cells into hydrogen fuel cells?!?

As far as I understand the technology, PV cells create "raw" electricity, and Hydrogen fuel cells hold hydrogen. Surely this is just like saying a guy is storing his excess electricity in petrol tanks; that's pretty freaking impossible unless he has some way of using the electricity to generate more hydrogen.

I don't know, I'd have to research this more to be sure, but my initial thoughts on this are that his off the grid system makes absolutely no sense!

Ya I was thinking the exact same thing, how do you convert sunlight into hydrogen?

 

[Navvan]

I fail to see how he has developed any new technology? He just used existing technology in the way it was meant to be used. Although I admit it is a nice model for how well it works.

It would be nice if it was subsidized for widespread use though. Doubt that will happen though due to the amount of money to be made by the energy companies through traditional methods.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Ya I was thinking the exact same thing, how do you convert sunlight into hydrogen?

Electrolysis. It splits the oxygen ad hydrogen molecules in water apart using electricity. You can react them together later to reclaim the power. It's no more than a fairly efficient, heavy-duty battery. You can buy toy cars with the same design.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

WTF Captcha?

Offtopic

OBV "DELTAp^m yeswit"

Sigh, what do they teach kids this days

Also, AFAIK google captchas are made to help convert book scanning into text, so don't rage with the weird stuff, you are helping preserve human knowledge (well, for google, whatever).

Offtopic

they aren't teaching the greek alphabet and I write my exponents by hand, never on a computer.