Fuel Cells

Fuel cells seems to be ready for production this year, and should be available next year, so this seems to be a better candidate. Can integrate well with the other electrically based sources of energy.

Offered by Wayne.

Looking at the cost/Kwatt-hr of the greenvolt. PM-135 produces about

13.5 volts*10amps*50hrs = 6.75Kwatt-hr

of electricity. Plates are then warn out. Cost of new plates is $45. This gives a net result of

$45/6.75kwatt-hr = $6.66/kwatt-hr.

Now using a rough order of magnitude calculation. If one purchases a 1Kwatt wind or hydro unit for say $2000 and it produces and average of .5 kwatt/hr for 10 to 20 years. Then approximately

2000/(.5kwatt*10years*365days*24hrs/day) = $.023/Kwatt-hr.

It's approximately 6.66/.023 = 290 times more costly to use this fuel cell over a windmill or hydro-generator. I think this has some emergency uses, but for a continuous power source, unless the price comes way down I doubt it will be practical for a PS now 2 years away. Am I missing something?

Offered by Mike.

You're looking at the wrong product. That is their emergency fuel cell product. They are now focusing on their alkaline fuel cell that will be in production at the end of this year. They will have a 1.3 kw product, followed by a 5 kw product that can be modularly connected to up to 350 kw. Their market focus is on stationary, portable, and vehicle applications. If you check their technical section, there is more info on this. Their development section shows a test program of driving a highway vehicle for 3,000 to 4,000 miles on one charge later this year!

Offered by Wayne.

From the data presented I don't see any reason to get excited about this Alkaline fuel cell. I expect it will need a continuous supply of hydrogen, oxygen, Anodes, Cathodes, and KOH at some yet determined cost. The over all cost/Kwatt-hr figuring in the cost of the consumables needs to be determined once this data is known. Can you keep track of this and let us know what the cost of operation analysis is once this becomes a sellable product? I don't see enough data in this site at this time to determine it. Don't get me wrong. I am hoping for a cost effective break through, just like all the rest of us. But we need to have a very practical look at it and not be taken in by the over selling of benefits as compared to true cost - typical marketing tactics.

Offered by Mike.