Read this the other day, i found it interesting,
and was amazed they could claim 80% energy efficiency!
another market being mentioned all the time is California.
seems to be alot of demand, yet the orders/announcements are not coming.
i wonder why????????
http://tinyurl.com/yk5razb
Tokyo, Japan ”” Japan, as a country with few natural energy resources, is eager to come up with alternative energy sources and has been taking the lead in developing this field. This year the world's first household hydrogen fuel cell was made available here. It can provide for a family’s energy needs, but there are some problems.
Japan's major gas companies started selling the Ene-Farm system, which generates electricity and hot water at the same time using the city’s gas supply, in May in major cities. It achieves 80 percent energy efficiency, twice what a conventional power generation system has.
Although it emits a certain amount of carbon dioxide, it still cuts 30 percent of emission of the gas, comparing to a general household using a conventional hot-water system and electricity generated by heat power plants.
If the system becomes widely used, it could contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Japan, the world's fifth-biggest emitter of the gases. For a midterm goal, the country aims to cut its emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
The weak point of the system is that it cannot be an alternative to fossil fuels as the Ene-Farm relies on the city gas supply, made from natural gas, to manufacture hydrogen. Still, since the system reduces primary energy consumption by 33 percent due to its high energy efficiency, it is worthwhile, according to Professor Kazunari Sasaki, director of the International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy at Kyushu University in southern Japan.
"From the viewpoint of promoting the effective use of primary energy, the Ene-Farm fully achieves its purpose," Sasaki said. Energy saving by households is also very important and cutting 30 percent of the emissions from the residential sector is enough, he added.
Another weak point of the system is that it does not work without ordinary electricity, meaning that it cannot be used as an emergency power source in case of a power outage.
But most problematic is the system’s high cost. The Ene-Farm system is priced at US$39,000. The government subsidizes each system by US$15,000, but the buyer still has to pay US$24,000 for the power generation system. This is not cost-effective, as it reduces expenses for electricity and gas by only around US$700 per year, on average.
Noayoshi Ogake, public relations director of Japan's largest gas utility Tokyo Gas, admitted that buyers cannot recover their initial investment even in the long term. From May to October this year, Tokyo Gas has sold 1050 systems, half its target, and planned to sell 42,000 by 2013, Ogake said.
It is not easy to bring down the high cost of hydrogen fuel cells, as manufacturing hydrogen in abundance at a low price is not easy. There are difficult challenges with its manufacturing, storing and transporting.
"Using renewable energy to make hydrogen is under review, but recently we realized that making it efficiently is not easy," said Kenichiro Ota, a professor at Yokohama National University, in a recent speech in Tokyo. "Based on the current infrastructure, we need to promote hydrogen energy with realistic thinking. Of course, depending on fossil fuels is one option."
Speaking to the Hydrogen Energy Systems Society of Japan in late October, Ota, former president of the society and now its adviser, emphasized the importance of introducing a hydrogen economy from the viewpoint of environment preservation. "Since hydrogen is good for the environment, we have no alternative though it costs more," Ota said.
Sasaki also agrees with Ota. "We will manufacture hydrogen by reforming natural gas in the coming 10 to 20 years, but want to use renewable energy in the long and medium terms," Sasaki said.
Japan, which has almost no underground fossil fuels, hopes to introduce hydrogen technology little by little, utilizing current infrastructure to the maximum extent possible. Manufacturers of household fuel cells and fuel-cell vehicles, another leading experimental technology, are counting on this trend to continue.
Some energy experts remain skeptical about hydrogen, however. "Making cars run by electricity is efficient and its zero emissions are wonderful, but it is fatal that the process takes too much energy," said Osamu Amano, a fellow at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry.
Hydrogen experts believe that its weak points will be resolved in the future, but Amano thinks this is a myth. “I don't think there is a solution," he stressed.
Yasumasa Fujii, a professor at the Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo, is also skeptical toward hydrogen, pointing out that it cannot compete with electricity because it is economically inefficient.
As for manufacturing hydrogen from water using electricity generated by renewable energy, Fujii says, "The manufactured hydrogen from renewable energy is used to generate electricity again. It takes a roundabout way. We should use electricity generated from renewable energy as electricity itself."
However, he concedes that hydrogen could be useful only as a fuel for vehicles. "In the future, an application that must definitely use hydrogen might be found, but I do not know," Fujii said.