Here’s my idea. Someone please build this for me. I want solar panels on my roof. That should be easy enough. But here’s what I want to do with the excess energy I don’t use during the day. Through electrolysis (all I need is running water) I want to create a stockpile of H2. Any power generated from the solar panels over what I can put into my H2 tank would go back into the grid. So when the sun doesn’t shine, I can use my home fuel cell for power. If I run out of H2, I can just take back from the grid. So now I’m thinking, since I have this tank of H2 sitting at my house, what’s to stop me from using it to fill up my fuel-cell-powered car? Heck, I could even reform the natural gas flowing into my house for H2 if I didn’t want to waste water.
Hmmm, I like the idea, though, due to the laws of thermodynamics you will get less energy out of your solar panels if you use it to break apart h2o rather than using them directly. If it’s to save money, it will take a long time before you get any payback… a really long time.
| September 2, 2005 @ 11:19 am