Four steps to a new reliable, cleaner and decentralized Energy Supply
based on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

Cars could be (or more pronounced: Cars have to be…) the key and the lead for a new energy supply based on H2/FC. All components to implement this idea are ready and available. All it takes is four steps:

Step 1:
– Renewable energies (like wind, solar, hydroelectric and/or biomass energy) produce hydrogen. At this time, natural gas can also be used, as it is available today at many homes worldwide. As it is a fossil fuel, this has to be a transition time only.

Step 2:
– The cars drive on hydrogen using fuel cells and electrical motors. These first two steps are also available and used in prototypes by all car manufactures worldwide. However, at this time, there is no public demand to buy and use these options. To get the repeatedly promised Hydrogen economy on its wheels, two more steps have to follow:

Step 3:
– While parked, these vehicles drive their fuel cell idle and supply electricity to the buildings where they are parked. At the same time they are “refulling” while sunlight is shining on the body of the car, equipped with a special hydrogen producing “two or three component coating” on their surface, instead of the conventional painting as they now have.

Step 4:
– Car owners earn money based on the electricity/heat supplied by their cars in this modus. The balance will be drawn (in cash) at “check out”, when the car owner is leaving the parking position.

This incentive for car owners driving and using their vehicles equipped with hydrogen as primary energy and a fuel cell system to produce electricity is twofold. They can either save (at their home) or earn (at the neighbour, drugstore, post office, airport) money while their cars are parked and plugged into participating buildings via a smart docking station. The balance of supplying and using electricity/hydrogen will be handled by smart, IT based calculating hard- and software. (Source: Own research)

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Revolution in the Garage

Looking at today’s so-called “western” countries, if all worldwide registered cars (more than 800 Mio in 2007) would be equipped with a fuel cell system, they could (all together) easily take over the function of all today’s existing stationary power plants. This is due to the fact that the total power installed in the cars engines exceed the capacity of existing stationary power plants by 20-35 times. Just calculate with a medium moderate power of 50 kW, which is not much for a car, but much in electricity. In average, cars are only being used running less than one hour per day. This allows a good utilization to create virtual power plants out of the car pool.

In the first implementation stage, the hydrogen needed to power this system will most likely come from natural gas which is currently widely available in most countries. Eventually, it will come from a direct-solar production of hydrogen from renewable energies. The individually produced hydrogen (pH = personal Hydrogen) will be stored in a tank inside the personal garage and also in a high density, high efficient tank in the car, made from hybrid nanostructures. The fuel cells in the cars produce DC, which will be used directly with nearly all today’s advanced home appliances like computers, TV and plasma screens, mobile phones and so on. The heat generated by the fuel cell in the car will be captured and used in heat exchangers based on nanotechnology to warm homes in winter. In summer, the captured heat from the fuel cell will be converted by means of nanotechnology heat exchangers for cooling. This system will eventually replace all residential boilers and air-conditioning units. This idea is not new and it has many „fathers“, Amory B. Lovins to mention just one, and is also just an example of where the hydrogen and fuel cell economy and even better: The Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Society has to apply these technologies in combination with already existing systems. By implementing these technologies, the user of the energy will also be his/her own energy producer. Surplus electricity can be transformed to AC (if needed - there will be a complete new DC grid worldwide, because DC is what is needed by the consumers) This electricity can be sold by the car owners to the grid and/or to neighbour properties like homes, offices, apartment houses, conference venues and/or hospitals. (Source: Own research)

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Revolution in the Garage
Four steps to a new reliable, cleaner and decentralized Energy Supply based on
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells"
First released September 2003, last update March 2007
With a new reliable, cleaner and decentralised Energy Supply based on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, incidents like the 2003 blackout in US and Canada would not have happened. The “components” to achieve this goal are available; some need additional R & D work, but the target can be achieved.
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Comment on the article "Ideas Are Plentiful" on
http://www.energyandpowermanagement.com
January 29, 2007
Yes, you are right, Mr Heslin, energy efficiency is quite a concern, but nobody knows the right solution until now. The only efficient way to reach energy efficiency can go, as you mention it already, via the people (consumers).
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Building Solar, Hydrogen Power in Your Garage (pdf)