This is going to drive electric companies crazy: residential fuel cells that run on hydrogen gas (propane works just fine) and generate electricity for the home. Availability of these fuel cells is just around the corner, and when they shift into mass production, you'll see an increasing number of households going off the grid.
This is sheer horror for power companies. Fewer customers means higher per-household overhead for their fixed costs. It also means the companies no longer have a monopology over demand for
electricity and now have to compete with an alternative technology.
To make matters worse, residential
fuel cells have no moving parts, so you can't sock it to
consumers with ongoing maintenance
costs and $80 / hour repairmen.
Residential
fuel cells are good for consumers, but hated by power
companies. Why? Because they work better. This is stiff competition for
power companies. Besides, as the Northeast blackout proved, centralized power coordination is less than perfect. Expect more blackouts to come, and once residential fuel cells are available, every blackout that receives national news coverage will cause a surge in
fuel cell sales.
About the author: Mike Adams is an award-winning journalist and holistic nutritionist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In mid 2010, Adams produced NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.
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Wednesday, October 01, 2003
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