Hydrogen car to power your house
26 September 2005 by Hydrogen Power
An article in the New York Times discussing the future of automotive technology, (registration required) covered all of the technologies from biodiesel and hybrid to electric and hydrogen. An interesting point was made about hydrogen fuel cell cars. While discussing some hybrids that already have this capability, it was noted:
We’re already demonstrating the technology in a Prius as an emergency generator. A vehicle with a hydrogen fuel cell would do more than help in a pinch. It could be connected to a house and supply power that does not come from a central grid. The power required to run a midsize car on the road today is about 30 times what is needed to run an average house with every light and appliance on. Because cars typically spend only a small fraction of the day actually on the roads, they could be put to work supplying power to other things the rest of the time. At work, for example, cars in a garage could plug into and power office buildings - for a fee, no doubt. Cars could sell energy back into the power grid too. That could be better than a break-even proposition for car owners with fuel cells, even when electricity was originally used to isolate the hydrogen: if the electricity used is consumed during off-peak hours when the price of power is low and distributed from fuel cells at peak hours when the price of power is high, there may well be money to be made.
I have to admit, that is one of the most tantalizing prospects of hydrogen fuel cells in our cars. Park in the garage and plug in your house. The power grid goes down, just plug into your car. I like it.
Update: Toyota’s Dream House article via Treehugger
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