Originally published February 7 2006
Wind power may combine with hydrogen power to create completely clean fuel source
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The only thing stopping hydrogen fuel cells from being a completely clean energy source is that they require an outside source of power -- usually fossil fuels -- to begin the chemical reaction, but new evidence suggests that wind could be used to start the chemical reaction, thereby creating a completely clean energy loop.
According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the Bush administration's plans to use nuclear power to generate hydrogen are off base, and wind power presents a better option.
"Electricity from wind is currently four cents per kilowatt-hour," the group says.
Wind energy and photovoltaic systems coupled to electrolyzers used for hydrogen separation are perhaps the most versatile of the approaches and are likely to be the major hydrogen producers of the future."
Princeton researcher Joan Ogden, a booster of solar and wind-based hydrogen, adds that nuclear hydrogen is dependent on "difficult technology that is much further from commercialization than many other hydrogen-production options."
A report by Science for Democratic Action concluded that "there are no real cost advantages to integrating fuel cells into the electricity system on a large scale."
Bill Leighty, director of the Leighty Foundation in Juneau, Alaska, has some sobering second thoughts on the idea of transmitting large amounts of wind-generated electricity via a hydrogen pipeline from North Dakota, for example, to Chicago, a possibility examined in a study underwritten by his foundation.
"Hydrogen transmission does not appear to offer an economically attractive alternative to gigawatt-scale transmission of Great Plains wind energy via high-voltage [electric lines] because of the extra costs of conversion from electric to hydrogen energy at the Great Plains source," said a key sentence in Leighty's paper.
Braun calls for 12 million wind systems to be mass-produced and installed within 24 months and coupled to an interstate hydrogen pipeline.
The wind meteorologist who analyzes wind regimes and identifies the best sites for wind farms will play a role in the new energy economy comparable to that of the petroleum geologist in the old energy economy.
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