By Cherie Jacobs, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
It
would be as if George Jetson took control of your home: Your own personal power
plant, called a fuel cell, could run your lights, your appliances, your air conditioning.
It could cut your dependence on power lines; it could cut your power bills.
Sound appealing?
That concept is still a long way off, but fuel
cells do exist and have been used to power the space shuttle. Shortly, some cars
run by fuel cells will be on the road. And in a handful of years, perhaps a fuel
cell could power your home.
"It's the one thing that you can say: It is
rocket science," said Namrita Kapur, equity research analyst for the investment
bank Adams, Harkness & Hill in Boston.
Fuel cells are similar to a battery
with a fuel tank. As long as there is some form of hydrogen, the cell can create
electricity.
The fuel-cell industry is still in its infancy, but several
companies ÷ including one in Pasco County ÷ are perfecting the technology for
researchers. One reason for fuel cells' recent rapid development is because traditional
power plants aren't as efficient in their use of fuel.
"It's just ripe
for something better to come along," said Glenn Doell, a vice president for Dais-Analytic
in Odessa.
"Put the power where you need it."
The fledgling fuel-cell
industry has accelerated in the past two years. The market for fuel cells and
related products is expected to be $2.4 billion next year, exploding to $7 billion
by 2009, according to the Freedonia Group, a research firm.
Right now,
they still cost too much to be widely available ÷ each one is made by hand at
one of about a dozen companies across the United States. Depending on size, they
can cost from $1,500 to $1 million.
"They're pretty cool," said Chuck
Linderman, director of energy supply policy for Edison Electric Institute's Alliance
of Energy Suppliers. "Too bad you can't buy one."
Fuel cells have been
around for more than a century and a half but have been refined in recent years.
The electrochemical devices sandwich a membrane between two electrodes, and are
stacked with other sandwiches to make a cell. Hydrogen travels across the membranes,
which contain platinum, and reacts with oxygen to create electricity.
They
are quiet and clean, emitting only heat, water and, with some fuels, carbon dioxide.
They have no moving parts.
They are fueled by hydrogen, which is difficult
to store because it takes high amounts of pressure to contain it conveniently.
But hydrogen can be extracted from more common fuels, such as natural gas, propane
or gasoline.
Some fuel cells are tiny enough to fit into a cellular phone.
Others are so big they can power a large factory. A fuel cell to power an average
home would be about the size of a small refrigerator.
Fuel cells are more
reliable than the traditional electricity grid, experts say, and are not as susceptible
to lightning strikes or fallen trees. But they are still experimental, and experts
do not know their maintenance requirements, for example.
Less than a dozen
companies make fuel cells today, each producing a few hundred a year or more,
all by hand.
Dais-Analytic in Pasco shares the field with business such
as Plug Power in Albany, N.Y.; and Ballard Power Systems in Vancouver, Canada.
Another firm, Energy Partners, says its first residential fuel cell will be available
late next year.
"People rely on the electric company, and they trust them,
for as many times as they say, `Gosh, my power was out, darn that electric company,'"
said Jessica Majeski, business development associate for Energy Partners, of West
Palm Beach.
"It's going to be tough to compete with, `Why don't I just
stay with the electric company?'"
Currently, most fuel cells are made
for research, universities, the government or utilities ÷ although there are exceptions.
One South Florida teenager, with the help of his parent's credit card, bought
a small one last year from Dais-Analytic for a science fair experiment.
Major
corporations are interested, including auto makers.
The earliest fuel-cell
cars will be released in 2003 or 2004, including models from Toyota, Ford, Nissan
and DaimlerChrysler.
Others doing research include General Electric, Dow
Chemical, and Westinghouse.
For now, costs remain high. A fuel cell for
home use could cost more than $25,000, though they are not yet commercially available.
While industry leaders believe prices could drop under $15,000 in a year, analysts
say the cost needs to move under about $3,000 to be considered affordable for
most consumers.
Even at those prices, a home with a fuel cell would have
to stay connected to a power company for peak times, such as hot summer days.
A fuel cell large enough to also support such peak use would be too expensive,
industry leaders say.
The industry has sort of a chicken-and-egg dilemma:
Until there's a bigger market for them, fuel-cell prices won't drop dramatically.
And until the prices fall, there won't be a big market for them.
"Power
generation technologies take a long time to get introduced into the market," said
Doug Herman, program manager for distributed generation for the Electric Power
Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. "The next couple of years, things could
start to happen."
Changes in the electricity market in the past two years
have spurred more investor interest in fuel cells and other "renewable" forms
of energy.
As an example, Merrill Lynch last year created a mutual fund
that invests only in alternative energy companies.
Fuel-cell companies
make up 20 percent of the fund, which is closed to new investors.
Concerns
over global climate changes and health risks associated with power plant emissions
has spurred some of the interest, said Karen Miller, technical director of Direct
Fuel Cell Group, a nonprofit group supporting a specific brand of unit.
Also,
about half the states have begun deregulating their power markets, meaning they
allow competition. Consumers are beginning to consider alternatives for electricity
beyond their traditional utilities.
In Florida, the Legislature may consider
a proposal to allow competition in the wholesale market, but a decision this year
is unlikely. A commission is studying whether to also allow competition in the
retail market.
The need for reliable power has grown, as people become
more reliant on computer technology. Fuel cells are ideal for businesses that
need power 99.999 percent of the time ÷ such as a hospital, or an Internet service
provider.
"I don't think you'll see consumers going to Home Depot and
buying a fuel-cell generator for their home, and taking full responsibility for
it," Dais-Analytic's Doell said.
But that creates a new market for traditional
utilities, said Joe Cascio, manager of market services for Tampa Electric Co.
He said the utility could create a service department to handle maintenance and
repairs of residential fuel cells. If people don't want to handle the fuel cells
themselves, they could simply call the power company they originally left behind.
It remains to be seen how quickly the technology will be embraced in the
Sunshine State because the usage of fuel cells is generally higher where natural
gas is popular, experts say.
But in Florida, only about 10 percent of
the households use natural gas ÷ making it an unlikely place for widespread use.
"The fundamental question is, do people really want to have their own
power generation appliance inside their house?" Herman, of Electric Power Research
Institute, said. "Some people like the idea, but it's not clear whether that enthusiasm
or desire will spread into the mass market.
"Nobody's really quite ready
to cut the wires," Herman said, "yet." |
