Fuel Cells Everywhere

Fuel cells come in all shapes and sizes. They are used by companies
for different purposes such as peak load capacity or electrical grid replacement.
For example Toyota Sales and Marketing division headquartered in Torrance, California is installing a one megawatt fuel cell for their 125 acre multi-building campus.

This unit, slated for completion in 2012, will provide electricity during peak hours in addition to utilizing the residual heat from the fuel cell. This fuel cell unit, also called a CHP (Combined Heat and Power), recycles waste heat from electric power generation achieving efficiencies over 85%.

Other companies such as Ebay, Walmart, UPS and others are using fuel cells. These and other corporations are ditching their diesel generators and replacing them with fuel cells for peak power and to remove themselves from the electrical grid.

Thousands of fuel cells have been installed world wide over the past twelve years, primarily for back up power. Many more fuel cells have been installed in locations where downtime is critical such as hospitals and data centers.

Fuel cells can also be found on military installations, remote telecom sites, zoos, and universities. Real estate developers are also installing fuel cells for multi-family units.

In Europe and Asia fuel cell units are used in residential applications for heat and electricity.
Is this realistic and practical for residences in the United States? This is something to think about.

The Ins and Outs of Fuel Cells

I’m a huge proponent of fuel cells as an alternative energy source. I believe that fuel cells have superior advantages over other alternative energy sources such as wind and solar which I will discuss at a later date. However now I will discuss the in’s and out’s of fuel cells. Most people doesn’t know anything about fuel cells because wind and solar get most of the publicity and if fuel cells do get any pub it’s usually related to the auto industry. Fuel cells can be used for stationary applications as well as back up power and portable applications.

 A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that produces electricity and heat from fuel and oxygen. It’s cleaner and more efficient than a conventional engine. Some might describe a fuel cell as a battery. This is comparison is sort of correct. A battery chemically stores and releases electricity. A fuel cell produces energy from the reaction of fuel and air. A battery will run out of power and will have to be recharged or disposed. However a fuel cell will continue to operate and produce electricity as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied to it.

Fuel cells are not new. They were invented in 1839 by Sir William Grove. In the 1950s and 60s fuel cell were used in NASA’s space program. From then on the use fuel cell ebbed and flowed until recently when the push for fuel efficient vehicles was needed.

As far as what type of fuel cells that exists, there are many. They are designated by the type of electrolyte they contain. The most common are alkaline which NASA used, molten carbonate, phosphoric acid, proton exchange membrane, direct methanol, and solid oxide. I will discuss more about fuel cells later.

Grid Expansion A Must: Part II

It’s no secret that wind turbines and solar panels are getting a lot of attention as a means to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. You don’t hear much about fuel cells except for vehicles, which hasn’t reached the market. Which ever alternative energy means is used will not be of much significance if the existing power grid is not upgraded. The aging electric infrastructure cannot handle the stress that alternative energy sources put out, such as wind turbines which produce power that is variable and intermittent. Upgrading the grid will cause some problems and business issues as far as the utilities are concerned. Politics will also play a part.

 

The rush to erect turbines all over the place may need to slow down until this problem is at least addressed. Even in the mid 80s, articles began to appear on the deterioration of the power grid and the increased demand for power. People today are becoming more and more worried about the power grid. When Y2K came about, it did a great deal to increase awareness of small standby generating systems. It caused a glut in the marketplace and an increased awareness for portable generators and standby units. And who can forget the mass blackout of August 2003 that immobilized the parts of the east coast, Midwest and Canada. I remember it because I was in Washington D.C. and stayed an extra day because there was no power at home. The potential advantages of alternative energy will not be maximized if the power grid is not attended to. 

Are Fuel Cells The Answer

There is a lot of information about alternative energy in the news, the web, partys, the watercooler etc. Some of it is good reliable information, some of it is not. You hear a great deal about wind turbines and solar panels as alternative energy sources. However fuel cells are push to the side as a footnote or not mentioned at all.

It may be because not everyone understands fuel cells like they do wind and solar. They’re a pretty simple concept, the wind turns a turbine and the the sun hits an array of panels. There are more details to it but thats the jist of it. Fuel cells on the other hand are a little more complex. It is an electro-chemical device that takes a fuel like hydrogen and oxygen and converts it to electricity. Fuel cells were invented in 1839, so it’s definitly not new.

I’ve been researching fuel cells for years and have come to the conculsion that they may be a better choice over other types of alternative energy. That’s not to say that turbines and solar panels do not have there palace in the world. However fuels cells may be more practical because as long as there is a constant flow of fuel  the fuel cell will function. Unlike the wind and sun the fuel to a fuel cell can be controlled. I’ll explain the in’s and out’s of fuel cells next time.

Better Choices

Wind turbines as alternative energy sources are very popular for various reasons, reasons that I mentioned in the last post. They’re a big hit with the various state and local governments around the country. So much so that these entities in addition to the federal government are providing incentives and tax breaks for residential and commercial use.

Using turbines to provide power in large utility applications is good. Turbines on a wind farm in the middle of no where is even better. However I don’t know if I want to look out my window and see a huge with tower in my neighbor’s backyard. For residential and light commercial use there are better choices such as solar panels (photovoltaic) and my personal favorite fuel cells. Both receive government incentives and tax breaks, fuel cells not as much. I’ll discuss fuel cells in detail in the future

Gone With the Wind Turbine Part II

In the previous post I discussed some of the finer points of wind turbines. This post I will discus the pros and cons and other issues.

           There are several advantages of wind turbines, one of them is the low cost of energy. Wind energy sells any where from 4 cents to 10 cents per kilowatt hour with relatively low capital cost for a wind farm. Another advantage is there are no harmful emissions. A wind turbine turns wind the wind blows, that’s it. There is no smoke, pollution, or fumes. Minimal land use is another advantage. Turbines are tall not wide. The acreage that would be used is small relative to solar panels for example. Also there is no fuel required to operate the turbines and no noise.

 

      

With advantages come disadvantages. Turbines can be unsightly. Looking at many white towers several stories high can be unappealing. There are zoning issues also in which politics will play a role.

 Where are these things going to be placed? A lot of people want them but they will say “not in my back yard”. Transport costs are another concern. These turbines are huge and weigh a many tons. They will need to be transported in sections. Site accessibility will come into play also.

 

            Perhaps the biggest concern would be the effect wind turbines would have on the existing electrical grid. A new transmission system would have to be built to handle the increase in the amount of electricity produced by the turbines.

The existing grid can not handle the volume of power coming from wind producing states. It will cause disturbances on the grid. The grid would have to handle the intermittence of the wind which will cause fluctuations in the power grid, not to mention the high cost of erecting a new grid. This is just a snapshot of wind turbines. More will be discussed in the future.

Gone With the Wind Turbine

We are in the age of alternative energy. The current electrical grid, like most people,  is stressed out. The culprit, more people with more electrical demands. Spikes, sags, blackouts, and brownouts can wreak havoc on our lives. I know, I’ve experienced all of the above several times.

 Let’s say its 6:30 am and you‘ve just got out of the shower. you start to blow dry your hair and the power goes out. Or you have lights that go dim without explanation, what do you do?

 Try to live without electricity for a certain period of time. You can’t. It rules everything in your house from the lighting, appliances, heating, entertainment, and more.

There are several options available to combat this problem all involve alternative energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels or photovoltaic, and fuel cells. I’ll start by discussing wind turbines.

In an effort to reduce green house gases and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil wind turbines are alternative energy sources that can achieve these goals.

 Simply put a wind turbine takes wind energy and converts it to electrical energy. These turbines range in size from approximately 300 feet (100meters) to 120 feet ( 40 meters). The taller they are better. There are wind farms in California, South Dakota, and the Plains States. They range in output from several kilowatts to around five megawatts or five million watts. Most amount of wind speed is at 164 feet ( 50 meters). Wind is most prevalent on the east and west coasts, great lakes and gulf coast and plains. Wind is a good option with several advantages and disadvantages which I’ll talk about later.

Alternatives

In recent months I’ve increased my research into alternative energy sources mainly for residential use. Do I want to go completely off the grid? Maybe in the future. For now, I want reliable stand by power so when the power goes out for the hundredth time during the year I ‘ll be alright.

I’m researching solar, wind, and fuel cells as power sources. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. I’ve totally ruled out a standby generator. It uses an internal combustion engine that is noisy and releases emissions like a car. I’ll discuss the merits of solar, wind, and fuel cells in the future.

Grid Expansion A Must

The U.S. electric grid should be expanded to link areas of the country rich in renewable resources like wind, solar and geothermal power, to populated areas, according to a report released by the nation’s top wind and solar industry groups a few months ago.

Building more transmission to accommodate vast new renewable power generation will help the U.S. cut its greenhouse gas emissions while also bringing cost savings to consumers, according to the report, which was released by American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association. A better transmission system would also boost competition in the wholesale power markets because it would open up the system to a variety of suppliers, the report said.

Wind farms have been proposed that would generate nearly 300,000 megawatts of electricity, about 20% of U.S. power demand, and 13,000 megawatts of solar power is under development in California, but new transmission infrastructure is needed to ship that power to the grid.

A patchwork of federal and state regulations have made permitting new transmission facilities a lengthy and costly enterprise, they said, suggesting that transmission permitting should be streamlined, with authority held by the federal government.

Obsolete Light Bulbs

The Energy Independence and Security Act  passed by Congress in December 2007  will render the incandescent light bulb ( the regular plain screw-in bulb used everywhere) obsolete. However a lot of people are unaware of this. The Clean Energy Act as its called, requires new energy efficient standards for regular light bulbs, phasing out most of the inefficient bulbs today. This makes the incandescent bulb a thing of the past. The phase out will occur in stages: Jan. 1,2012 for 100w, Jan.1, 2013 for 75w, and Jan. 1, 2014 for 40w and 60w. 

This federal legislation forces people to adapt to more efficient  lighting technologies such as compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs).  As for CFLs a lot of homeowners were switching to them anyway. They’ve come a long way in recent years. There coming down in price and some are not giving off that harsh cool bluish light. These lighting technologies can play a big role in reducing electricity cost and power plant emissions.