Hey, this belongs here. Avista specific information from cnn.com writeup.
cnn.com
...>>Only a handful of companies
are involved in residential fuel cell research and development. International
Fuel Cells of Danbury, Connecticut, was the first to produce a commercial
model, which uses phosphoric acid.
In Spokane, Avista Labs, an affiliate of the Spokane-based energy
services company Avista Corp., plans to begin field trials in June of its own
version, called a proton exchange membrane, or PEM, generator. The
PEM cells -- one would fit in a shoebox -- use a thin polymer membrane
that reacts with hydrogen to form electrical currents between two
electrodes.
Stacked into a space the size of a refrigerator, racks of PEM fuel cells can
supply all the electricity an average home needs, Avista Labs president
Kim Zentz said in a recent interview.
"Fuel cells represent a technology that has been around a long time, are
well proven, with environmental benefits," she said.
Avista is working on developing a fuel processor that can convert natural
gas, propane or other fossil fuels into hydrogen, Zentz said.
Field trials will determine the average annual cost of fuel to operate the fuel
cells, but it is anticipated that most homeowners would probably spend
about the same, or less, for power, Zentz said.
140 million homes by 2030?
Electricity from home fuel cells should be 20 percent more efficient than
that produced by a large natural gas turbine plant and delivered through
transmission lines, Zentz said. Supplying power to remote, off-the-grid
areas in the United States holds immense promise, Bos said.
For instance, Sierra Pacific Power -- a utility in Nevada and northern
California -- recently concluded that as many as 50,000 of its potential
customers live in remote areas not served by costly power lines, Rose said.
Even in areas already served by power lines, fuel cells could be used as
backup in power outages, Rose said.
The potential U.S. market could be 140 million homes by 2030, Bos said.
That would include new construction at remote sites and retrofitting of
existing homes, because costs of fuel-cell-generated electricity would be
competitive by then, he said.
Deregulation of the electrical-power industry is driving the new interest in
small-scale fuel-cell development, Zentz said.
"Customers are demanding more choice and more freedom of choice that
may not have been there 20 or 30 years ago," she said.
It might seem odd that a regional electricity and natural-gas utility is pushing
a device that eventually could replace traditional transmission lines and
monthly billings.
But Avista, formerly the Washington Water Power Co., is taking a global
perspective.
"There are almost 2 billion people in the world currently not served by any
utility," Zentz notes.
Avista is looking for a partner in the consumer-products field to help
produce and market the device -- preferably someone in the heating,
ventilating and air conditioning industry, Zentz said.
"It's a very special thing to take a scientific approach and move it across
that last mile of commercialization," she said.
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