Honda Unveils a Home Solar Hydrogen-Producing Station
Recently, Honda has began operation on a next generation solar hydrogen station prototype that will allow its cars to have easy access to clean energy. The solar hydrogen station prototype will be designed as small and compact enough to fit in the average garage.
The solar hydrogen station should produce enough hydrogen during an 8-hour overnight fill for a typical daily commute. The electric vehicle should be able to commute about 10,000 miles per year on a nightly 8-hour fill. The design of the station is very simple and user-friendly. It simply requires lifting and moving the fuel hose and dispensing the energy.
The best thing about the hydrogen station is that it doesn’t require the storage of hydrogen. This lowers CO2 emission. The station is compatible with a Smart Grid energy system. The Smart Grid system works by exporting renewable electricity to the grid during daytime peak power times. This means that the station uses less expensive off-peak electrical power.
The Honda Solar Hydrogen Station is designed to fulfill the needs of electrical vehicle owners and give electric drivers the energy they need to keep their vehicles on the road.
Via Dvice
February 1st, 2010 at 1:36 pm
This reeks several flavors of bullshit. First, whoever comes up with an “solar overnight” hydrogen-producers ? We all know that there’s just a BUNCH of solar energy around at NIGHT, right people ?
Second, commuting 10000 miles is about 50 miles every workday, for 50 miles, a typical vehicle needs on the order of 1.5 gallons of petrol, or a equivalent amount of hydrogen. The depicted design has around 3 square meters of solar collectors, which is insufficient to capture the amount of energy required.
Third, it’s not the storage that costs energy, it’s the compression and cooling. But guess what, even if you pumpt the produced hydrogen directly into the storage-tank of the vehicle, you STILL need to spend precisely the same amount of energy compressing it.
In short, if this isn’t a joke, it’s atleast made by someone without even rudimentary engineering-knowledge.
February 1st, 2010 at 11:38 pm
I agree with #1.
This takes a perfectly good hydrogen car and saddles it with all the faults of an inefficient battery car!
Methinks its a form of FUD to burden the superior hydrogen technology because it makes battery cars look like doggie-do.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 am
@Gunnar What it means is that the station will use grid energy overnight, and then, during the day, pump electricity back into the grid. Duh.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:11 am
This is a positive thing, a positive step forward. I thought bullshit had only one common scent. Does this mean that commentor number 1 roams from pasture to pasture eating bullshit.