Cohousing-L Mailing List: Power grids eventually not required for Development

[The Fertile Zone (fertilezone]

Housing developments may soon have the means to be completely 
independent of power grid services.

FUEL CELL TO POWER TEST HOUSE
An energy technology called a fuel cell will for the first time supply all the 
power 
to a suburban home, a brick ranch-style house in Latham, New York that 
engineers planned to disconnect from the local utility June 17. Fuel cells are 
on 
the verge of breakthrough as an economical alternative to traditional energy 
sources. Officials at the US Energy Department, which is helping to pay for the 
Latham test, have high hopes that within a few years thousands of homes will 
be drawing electric power from fuel cells, cutting pollution and fuel 
consumption. The fuel-cell device at the Latham house looks more like a home 
central air-conditioning unit than the small chemical plant it really is. An 
idea 
that has been around for more than 100 years, fuel cells convert liquid fuel 
into 
electricity through a chemical reaction instead of combustion. Confidence 
about mass producing the latest designs at reasonable costs is growing as 
researchers make progress tinkering with the fuel cell's membranes. Scientists 
are now using Gore-Tex, the fabric used in foul-weather gear, to make the ultra-
thin membranes crucial to the basic chemical reaction - combining oxygen and 
hydrogen to make water and electricity. Plug Power, the company running the 
Latham test, predicts it can market residential fuel cells by 2000 at $3,000 to 
$5,00O each.   - The New York Times, 17 Jun 98, p A27,
by Matthew L. Wald.



The Fertile Zone
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/4726/
Natural Familily Planning doesn't get any simpler.