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Japan working toward fuel-cell reality
Shunskei Ugajin stands next to the hydrogen fuel cell behind his home in the Tokyo suburb of Urawa.
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Steve Chiotakis: You've probably heard about hydrogen fuel cells for the car. Well, how about for the home? For Americans, it might sound like a far-off reality. But in Japan, home fuel cells are gaining in popularity. From station KQED, Rob Schmitz reports from Tokyo.
Rob Schmitz: Ever since Shunskei Ugajin got a hydrogen fuel cell, he's been the most popular guy on his block. Neighbors come over just to gawk at it. It stands proudly behind his house in Urawa, outside Tokyo.
Ugajin shows off two steel boxes that look like refrigerators -- one at full size, the other the size of one you might see in a dorm room. Inside the small box, hydrogen is separated from his home's natural gas line. The fuel cell then operates like a battery, generating enough electricity to power the entire house. The heat given off in the process travels to the large box to heat the home and the home's water.
Inside, a display shows the carbon saved: a typical fuel cell cuts carbon dioxide emissions by a ton per year. That's around an eighth of what an average home produces.
What they won't save -- yet -- is money: Buying one will set you back about $30,000 U.S. But a government subsidy that covers half the bill has spurred several Japanese companies to start mass producing them.
At Panasonic's new fuel cell factory outside of Kyoto, special training computers instruct a row of 16 workers on how to build the cells. Analysts expect the price to drop to $5,000 a piece within five years.
Ikutoshi Matsumura, director of Japan's Fuel Cell Association, says by 2050, 1 in 4 homes in Japan will run on a fuel cell.
Ikutoshi Matsumura (voice of interpreter): Each of these fuel cells has more than a thousand parts that are manufactured by more than 200 companies. If our market expands like we foresee, that will be a significant contribution to the Japanese economy.
And that success is attracting worried observers from across the Pacific -- like Scott Samuelson, director of the California-based National Fuel Cell Research Center.
Scott Samuelson: And the United States market for residential fuel cells should be inspired by the success, but also very concerned by the success.
Samuelson says Japan is a decade ahead of the U.S. in the lucrative residential fuel cell market, but the U.S. has made strides in the industrial sector. What the U.S. needs, he says, is a strong commitment to develop the residential sector, but in this economy, he's not holding his breath.
In Tokyo, I'm Rob Schmitz for Marketplace.
The work by Dr. Joseph Romm in his book The Hype about Hydrogen makes it clear that the hydrogen car will never help reduce green house gases because the overall hydrogen fueling process is inherently costly and inefficient. http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/329.html So I'm wondering how converting and re-converting energy for a home hydrogen fuel cell is able to avoid those problems. I wonder if ALL the energy inputs, such as external electricity, have been included in the analysis?
Stories like this one need a “tech notes†addendum; information such as …
Price: OK, it’s in the main body, $30K, 15K with subsidy. Does that include installation? Connection to the electrical grid?
Output: Electrical, How many KW; thermal BTU/hr at rated electrical output
Input: How many cu ft CH4 per hour at rated output
Membrane lifetime: Years
Membrane replacement price: ?
From everything I’ve read, making a durable membrane is the biggest challenge to fuel cell development. Figure that for a car it has to work reliably from –50 to +150 degrees F, including exhausting its H2O output.
I'm reminded of a story told by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) a few years ago, regarding the development of the CD player. The first prototype unit was supposedly the size of a dining room table and contained about $18000 of parts. Management was shrewd enough to believe that it could become a viable product. My first CD player cost $299. How much does one cost now, $29? And how far have we now advanced beyond them with DVDs and BluRay? I think the big future challenge for government and industry is figuring out how to get vast technological advances like this into practical mass production. The countries that figure out how to "jump the hump" will win. The rest will lose.
Some asked about these for the US market. Clear Edge power is currently selling them: http://www.clearedgepower.com/categories/about-us/pages/home But this don't make any more economic sense in the US than they do in Japan. If they get down to $5,000 "within 5 years" as this article suggests, then they will begin to make sense. Until then, its no more than a novelty. The cells are only good for 5 years by the way (this applies to all fuel cells that I am aware of). Clear Edge pays for the first cell replacement, after that you are on your own. The price before subsidies, with installation, is between 60 and 70 thousand dollars.
There ought to be concern for this development!! Again, the Japanese have leaped into the future while we are still lingering in the past.
I am sure there are engineers in the United States who could (perhaps already) have come up with a system like this, but the energy producers of the past won't let it come to the market.
Wouldn't it be nice to have only one utility bill to heat and cool a home.
Being in the energy field most of my life starting my life in a family which operated Anthracite Coal operations, become an engineering in the Nuclear industry and a then Energy Manager I understand the life cycle of the carbon to energy footprint. I would jump at the opportunity to install test and analyze a home fuel cell with US Electric and Natural Gas industry support. My residence is in PPL (Electric) and UGI (Natural Gas) territory I would hope there would be interest.
I'm curious if you know the company that built these units? I have been wanting to install these in the US for some time now and have had no luck finding companies that are producing yet. GE has been rumored to be making one for some time now, but I haven't seen anything concrete yet. Living in New England, this simply makes sense, we already have the nations best NG grid and this would be a great alternative since we generally lack in wind and solar.
