[B Knotts]

A small hydrogen fuel cell may eventually power homes and get us off the grid.

Yes, but where do you get the hydrogen for that fuel cell?

That's right...from LP (liquid petroleum) gas or natural gas. That's what GE's home fuel cell unit runs on.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Check this out.

Capstone Microturbines

Reliable, efficient, scalable, fuel flexable, available now, and tons cheaper.

[Elliott Jackalope]

That is, IMHO, the wave of the future. Neighborhoods will have their own power generators, each block will have a box about the size of a refrigerator that generates power for the local neighborhood. These generators will be powered by natural gas, which they will burn in fuel cells to create electricity. All of these generators would be plugged into the power grid, and power will be distributed as needed through local switching directed by central controllers.

The end result is that you will have gotten rid of %99 of transmission losses, and pollution is distributed and minimized. No more giant power plants, no more NIMBY resistance to those power plants being constructed, the permit process goes from a million page process down to about what you have to do to put in a traffic light controller.

Small can be beautiful. As far as hydrogen cars, forget it. Hybrids will be the wave of the future. Within ten years there will be hybrid sports cars, SUV 4x4's, pickup trucks, you name it, and they will run circles around the conventional vehicles of today. The future belongs to hybrids, not to hydrogen IMHO.