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Take a close look at the spec sheet. Max efficiency of this system is at loads below 30% of full load. This is very different from most other generating systems, which are most efficient near full load. There's thus a tradeoff between plant cost and fuel consumption; it may pay to buy extra generation capacity. Also note that the operating temperature range is limited (-20F to +104F) without "optional upgrades". Having generation gear that quits in hot weather is not good; that's not when you want to suddenly start drawing power from the grid.

Still, this is going to look really good to anybody who has a Diesel running off a propane tank.

The best, from Vancouver BC, Canada The already have busses! Ballard Power Systems Check it out. They have partnerships with tons of companies.

I work at Ford's Enviromental Vehicle project and i can't legally speak for them. Without trying to give out anything proprietary, in general, energy density is the real killer. 1 kg of gasoline efficiently tapped can give you 42-44 Megajoules. NiCad, Lead-Acid and Sodium-Sulfur of the same weight barely have a fraction of this energy. To replace 16 gallon (approx 42.39kg) of gasoline you need 14838.768 kg of lead acid battery. This is ten times the average weight of a car (around 1500kg). Since the car is 11 times heavier it should require 11 times more fuel. You do the math. It may more costly to your pocket and the enviroment (more energy use and heat dissipation).

Ultracaps? That's great. I know one company that sells ultracaps with 10,850.69 Joules/kg. Packs a punch for your house intruder but can't you anywhere (literally).

Ah.... somebody mentioned fuel cells. You can check out one of the suppliers ballard This is promising but the energy conversion unit is still heavy. Hydrogen actually packs more energy than gasoline: 38khw/kg (that's about 136.8 mejajoules/kg). Unfortunately, it hoards a lot of space. We could use methanol and carry methanol->hydrogen reformer that would take up more weight. After reliasing that the conversion unit takes more weight you begin to wonder, why don't you burn the hydrogen in the first place, instead of investing in the fuel cell stack, electric drivetrain and stuff? We are bothering with eletric motor? Why can't we just improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine?

Relative to electric motor, internal combustion engine (ICE) is highly inefficient. While good motor with a good controller can give you close to 95% efficiency, an ICE is at 17% in a good day. Worse it's peak efficiency is at certain torque and at certain speed. That is why we have gearbox system and clutch. When the car stops, you have supply it with some fuel to keep spinning (idling) which is 100% loss (0% efficient). With electric motor you can adjust your torque and speed electrically and reclaim energy in braking.

I think I better stop here. in the meantime you are welcome to buy Ford electric bicycles and other stuff http://www.thinkmobility.com

Hasdi
Not speaking for Ford

You wrote: "We need a way to show the oil companies that we're fed up of lining their pockets with cash" which is kind of funny since there are so many ways, and so many organisations doing so.
Rule #1: Buy NO unneccessary plastic items. I make an exception, personally, for my kids' legos. But I don't buy a new case for my computer just because the ATX form came out, I hacksaw the old one. Plastics are essentially a waste product of the petroleum industry.
Rule #2: Buy NOTHING from Exxon. Because we need to convince the Oil Barons that there are some things that don't blow over - and Exxon's had the most egregious crimes as well as being the last vestigal trace of the original Petroleum Trust (Standard Oil = S.O. = Esso = Exxon, you can confirm this easily).
Rule #3: Stop whining and do something. I am converting my truck to gas/electric hybrid ASAP. My bud Pete runs used fryer oil in his (unmodified) Mercedes diesel.

Alternative Energy Engineering
Ballard Fuel Cells
Electro Automotive
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
Greenpeace International Homepage
Home Power Magazine
Hydrogen Web (English/German)
innEVations
Jerry Halstead's Car
Low Rolling Resistance Tires
Phoenix EAA
Roofing Systems
Unique Mobility
Veggie Van (BioDiesel)
Wilde EVolutions catalog
United Solar Systems Home Page

--Charlie

While Toyota and Honda are currently selling hybrid gas-electric cars, fuel cells are probably a more realistic long term solution. A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen into water with no other significant waste product. The energy given off by that process is used to power the fuel cell. Fuel cells were used to power the Apollo spacecraft.

You can check out two good web sites on fuel cells. The first is at FuelCellTalk.com and is actually a site based on SlashCode so you should be right at home :) The second is H2FC.com. It's a great general reference for fuel cells.

We're probably still a few years away from purchasable fuel cell vehicles. A Canadian company called Ballard Power has agreement with Ford and DaimlerChrysler to work on fuel cell vehicles.

Problems still remain in the area of hydrogen storage but we'll get those figured out :) Cheers.

And there seems to be some success in dispelling the myth that hydrogen is dangerous. In fact it has been widely demonstrated that hydrogen is much safer than gas. Hydrogen is very volatile so when it burns it burns straight up. But gas spreads out over the ground and burns much more slowly, compared to hydrogen anyway. Besides that the health risks associated with gasolene delivery systems (the pump) would be eliminated with hydrogen.

The big car companies all have plans for fuel cell based vehicles in 2004 or 2005. When that happens you can bet that the adoption of this technology will explode, as did the widespread adoption of the internet with the advent of the web. And when those fuel cell vehicles come on the market I will end my boycott of automobile ownership, although I plan to continue to ride my bike to work!

I would say this is about as lame as lead acid batteries.. THIS, however, is the shit!

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• http://www.ballard.com/ Stationary fuel cells (for your house)
• http://www.manhattsci.com/ Micro fuel cells (for your cell phone/PDA)
• http://www.plugpower.com/home.cfm More home fuel cells
• http://reality.sculptors.com/lists.html Fuel cell discussion list

For those of you interested in the car side of this issue, here's a link to a different company which is making fuel cells in connection with automobile companies. One thing of interest: California will be requiring 10% of all car's sold to be Zero Emission Vehicles in the year 2004. I, for one, can't wait.

www.ballard.com

www.drivingthefuture.org

What is a Fuel Cell?

Ballard Power Systems is the player that has working fuel cells. Their technology is rated in kilowatts and requires pumps and plumbing, and is going into all those fuel-cell powered cars you hear about. There are also small stationary plants, running on natural gas. Ballard plants will probably replace many Diesel generator sets.

You're nearly two decades off, man... the program is about that old. Around 1985 nearly 90% of cars sold in Brazil burned ethanol. Last year this was only 5%... the program may be considered a failure, despite heavy government aid.

In order to meet the demand they are clearing large amounts of land (primarily rain forest, of course) to grow the stuff.

Most of the "rain forest" is too far away from the industrialized part of Brazil to make it economical to do that, although it has undoubtedly happened in the past. As for "demand", read above... there's very little nowadays. One reason is that, despite the fact that ethanol burns much cleaner than gasoline, the byproducts of producing it are serious pollutants... especially the destillation residues.

Regarding the announcement, there's been serious research into small-scale fuel cells for decades - most have been failures because of high operating temperatures, something you definitely wouldn't want in a laptop. But there's been progress recently. Look at Ballard for instance, they've been building automotive fuel cells for Daimler-Benz and Honda, among others.