Has anyone looked into the price of one of the smaller fuel-cells? I've heard prices are down around $8,000 for a fuel cell which can provide the electrical needs of a small house.
Keep a small solar array to produce the hydrogen for the fuel cells, and you've got your own electricity generator which is essentially powered off the sun and water, without having to worry too much about long cloudy periods, especially in the winter months. Hook that bicycle generator up to the hydrogen-producing unit to make exercise do more than burn off the calories.
With solar arrays to charge batteries coming in at around half the cost of a fuel cell, but only producing one tenth the energy produced by the fuel cell, it seems worth it to look into the fuel cell technology if the end goal is to have a reliable source of energy if the main AC power lines go down. If the end result is a much lower power bill as well, this is a major bonus.
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