Well one benefit of fuel cells is that they allow one to power a home with electricity which is off the grid (same with solar and wind, but fuel cells running on, e.g., methanol, provide guaranteed power as long as you have the methanol). So a truck stops by and fills your in-ground tank with methanol, and you're good to go (for how long, I don't know). Or now that I think about it, people are targeting fuel cells which run on natural gas. So there we often already have the fuel delivery (pipelines) in place, but need no electricity lines. Still, gas lines are not cheap to run long distances either. I'm with you, in general: I don't see a near-term fabulous future for locally-installed fuel cells powering homes. Fuel cell engine driven autos may actually be important first, but that picture has problems as well (similar net emissions, when including the fuel processing factory -- I'm against carbon sequestration as a strategy, because I think it's a short-sited dodge of the environmental issues.)
We'll see, but I suspect those technologies will still take longer to mature and flourish than most people expect.
Randy |
