Imagine: it is a beautiful blue-sky day; the wind is blow steady at 18 km/h, the wind turbine spinning effortlessly, the solar panels are tracking the sun as it treks across the horizon.
You go out to your car, drive it up to the power shed and use the dispenser nozzle to fill it with the hydrogen from the metal hydride storage tanks stored inside.
Off to town you go, leaving a plume of water vapour streaming from your exhaust pipe.
Sound farfetched? Well No. 1, you probably are not going to see this in Alberta any time soon but the technology is there, albeit at a premium.
Alternate energy systems have proven themselves in industrial situations all over the world.
Large solar farms in California and wind farms in Southern Alberta have proven the green energy concept.
Fuels cells have been around for a long time — they were actually invented in 1839 by Sir William Grove — and the ability to generate hydrogen has been around since 1766 when Henry Cavendish recognized it as a “discrete substance.”
It is feasible to set up an off-grid home, with wind and solar arrays large enough to generate a surplus of power on those clear, windy days.
This energy surplus would be used to produce hydrogen, store the hydrogen in metal hydride cylinders, and use it for running fuel cells to power the house on foggy days, heating your home, cooking your food and even running your hybrid vehicle. Basically it would provide you with everything you needed to maintain the standard of living that we have become so accustomed to.
In addition, it would not contribute to the consumption of non-renewable resources and would greatly reduce your personal impact on the environment.
Practical applications presently would be remote facilities like fishing lodges, new homes where bringing in the grid is extremely costly, or geographically not possible; basically, anywhere you have to be, or want to be, totally self sufficient.
This concept has been proven — there are hydrogen homes already in operation in North America — but it takes dedication to a new technology that most people are not willing to muster.
Logistics present a problem to procurement of the equipment. Shipping from Europe and Asia adds expense to the project.
But the cost is not insurmountable.
If you consider what we willingly pay for a diesel four-wheel-drive SUV or pickup, and the cost of fuel required to operate it as you wish, the cost of your home heating requirements, and the cost of the electricity you use, then the cost recovery factor of a hybrid system takes on a whole new slant.
Don’t get me wrong, this equipment is not sitting on the shelf down at the hardware store.
It has to be ordered in from around the country and in some cases around the world, but it won’t be so many years before it becomes acceptable as an alternative. The seed of an idea has been planted.
Lorne Oja is an energy consultant, power engineer and a partner in a company that installs solar panels, wind turbines and energy control products in Central Alberta. He built his first off-grid home in 2003 and is in the planning stage for his second. His column appears every second Friday in the Advocate. Contact him at: lorne@solartechnical.ca