Yasushi Kawamori has a power plant in his backyard. Not the kind that belches clouds of CO2 into the atmosphere, but the kind that's small (about the size of a refrigerator and a suitcase placed side by side), quiet (a faint thumping is just audible) and emits a fraction of the carbon dioxide a coal-fired plant would. The system uses a hydrogen fuel cell to convert natural gas into electricity; heat from the reaction generates hot water for himself, his wife and their two children. It's called a fuel cell cogeneration system, and Kawamori is more than happy to have it in his backyard. "We're making electricity at our own home, and the heat from that electricity gets used, so it's really efficient," he says. "I like that it's cost-effective and good for the environment."
Until recently, hydrogen has been limited to powering systems on NASA's Space Shuttle. Now, fuel cells are at work in cars and, as these experiments show, hydrogen can work on a domestic scale, too. In fact, fuel cell technology could make energy independence for every home a real possibility, a crucial goal given the volatility of oil prices and the accelerating problems caused by climate change.
"Hydrogen is an energy carrier—energy is stored in its chemical bonds," explains John Turner, a principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Lab's Center for Electric & Hydrogen Technologies & Systems in Golden, Colorado. "We know we can make enough hydrogen to power our society. In the future, hydrogen may be everything." With commercial sales scheduled for this year, and partnerships among gas companies, manufacturers and the government already in place, Japan is at the forefront of global efforts to get hydrogen fuel cells into homes. Last fall, the world's largest "hydrogen town project" kicked off in Maebaru City in southern Japan, with the installation of 150 residential fuel cell systems.
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