Yes, viewshed. This county is all kinda fucked up, and in ways I never would have conceived of all on my lonesome.
So... what about those fuel cells? Years ago I was saying that H fuel cells just weren't viable, especially if we have to recreate an entire infrastructure to go that route. :D
Your fuel cell prayers have been answered! First, there half a dozen different types now, the two most promising for our purposes being the methanol fuel cell and the PEM types. The methanol fuel cell works by converting methanol into electricity in the presence of atmospheric oxygen. These can be made to be TINY, so you'll likely see it in cell phone power supplies and portable electronics first, although the technology scales just fine to bigger applications. Methanol can be easily made from lots of low quality plant matter- hence the name 'wood alcohol'- so I think this tech will be commonplace very soon.
PEM = Proton Exchange Membrane, this is the 'Ballard power' technology. This converts PURE hydrogen into electricity at up to 80% efficiency, and yet another 15% efficiency can be gained by reusing the waste heat. These hold the most promise for home based power cogeneration. The Achilles heel of PEM is that any contamination by materials other than hydrogen clogs up the membranes and kills the device. Therefore, very pure hydrogen is key to useful life span.
Enter the hydrogen reformer! This bit of kit is being installed on residential fuel cells in Japan already, and will doubtless be an integral part of the entire fuel cell adoption movement- because what it does is convert gaseous hydrocarbons, like natural gas, methane, butane, propane, etc, by stripping all the carbon away, leaving pure hydrogen to power the fuel cell. In other words, you'll hook it up to your gas line. HUGE, since guess what is going to be America's most abundant (therefore available AND affordable) fossil fuel for up to the next 200 years- yep, natural gas!
Ok, cool. Why should you care? Because depending on how the calculation is run, your basement fuel cell power plant will generate electricity at between 3 cents per kWh... and 0.3. It won't take long for THIS crowd to hit the unit's break even point at that rate! The power is the reason, the spare heat is the bonus. Heat your home, hot water, a hot tub, your outdoor aquaponics tank, etc etc... FREE. Just pipe the heat to where you want it.
I saved the most interesting potential synergy for last; back to that reformer for a moment. The fuel cell makes water vapor and nothing else. But wait- there's carbon in them thar natural gas molecules, so where'd they go? That tricky little reformer... it strips the hydrogen out and oxygenates the rest, so all that carbon comes out as... carbon dioxide. Produced as a byproduct of fuel cell cogeneration, it's a very pure and continuous source of the gas.
It's almost like they asked us what we want in a perfect power plant... it's here, it's mine, it makes all the power I want (provided you can afford the upfront cost), it makes electricity for pennies on the dollar, especially vs. PG & E or other major urban center power pricing, lasts for decades, basically zero maintenance- plus, it makes heat to warm your house AND CO².
Fuel cells, FOR THE WIN!
And yes, they are indeed good for the environment.
