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To: Dr. Harvey who wrote (6)	11/29/1998 1:37:00 PM
From: Dr. Harvey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 127

An interesting set of posts reprinted from Yahoo BLDPF thread, with implications for companies involved with fuel cells, post.messages.yahoo.com@m2.yahoo.com At the First International Association for Hydrogen Energy Conference in 1974, the issue that dominated all others was "How can we establish a hydrogen economy while it remains cheaper to burn fossil fuels than to produce hydrogen?" The scientists in attendence were confident that the details of a hydrogen energy infrastructure could be worked out - but how could it be economically justified? Dr. Robert Zweig of today's Clean Air Now spoke with great impact on how a conversion to a hydrogen economy could be entirely financed by the elimination of pollution-related health expenses. It made perfect sense to me, but there was no market mechanism for it and the hydrogen economy never materialized. Today, that market mechanism is being gradually put into place through government incentives and penalties - and perhaps, even more importantly, the economic incentives are becoming more attractive through research made possible by government/academic/industry research and development projects that spinn off into the free enterprise system. A prime example of the serendipitous/synergistic nature of these collaborations is the following short article. It describes work by Oscar Khaselev and John A. Turner at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, resulting in a doubling of the efficiency of hydrogen production from solar energy. The paper announcing this breakthrough was published in Science Magazine as "A Monolithic Photovoltaic-Photoelectrochemical Device for Hydrogen Production via Water Splitting" - [Science 1998 280: 425-427.] This is a very exciting breakthrough. When I met John Turner at the Fuel Cell Seminar in Palm Springs, he downplayed the significance of this discovery, saying he was surprised at the level of notice his work received. But this response is common among specialists. Pull back and take a look at the bigger picture. Fuel cells of all types are rapidly getting smaller and more efficient. Wind power has made tremendous gains in efficiency and dependability. On-board hydrogen stotage volume in transportation is poised to make a breakthrough in the area of carbon fiber and nanotube storage. Stationary FCs (Ballard, IFC, etc.), skid reformer plants (IFC) and electric power trains (Ford Ecostar) are nearing mass production. And consumer electrolysers are about to be released (Stuart Energy). It is no mystery: what is about to happen. I believe that this building momentum is unstoppable. The world is going to change abruptly. And for the better.