Home Hydrogen Production: GM weighs in

[greenman3610]

The reasons many experts are dubious about the so called
'hydrogen economy" are these:
No network of Hydrogen refueling stations exists

producing large amounts of hydrogen uses (potentially)
tremendous amounts of fossil energy

Since no large scale effort has been envisioned to overcome
these drawbacks, the hydrogen idea has been largely written
off by many.

General Motors has now announced an initiative to create a
"home hydrogen station", possibly solar powered, in tandem
with its proposed hydrogen car.
This is very much in keeping with Al Gore's vision of the
"Electranet" - an intelligent network of tiny energy
producing nodes, that produce or use power in intelligent
concert with thousands of others.
Honda has also been working on he concept - with the idea that the same source
that powers the car can power the house, in fact ,the car itself can be
a source for the house, and for the national grid....
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General Motors is building a prototype for a home hydrogen refueling unit in hope of selling fuel-cell cars by 2011.
The unit, which would make hydrogen using either electricity or sunlight, would help sidestep one of the most vexing problems surrounding the creation of the pollution-free, alternative-power cars: how to persuade oil companies to invest in expensive new hydrogen stations that would compete with their core product, gasoline.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2006-09-24-gm-hydrogen-usat_x.htm
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Honda also unveiled its current model of the Home Energy Station (HES), a home cogeneration and fueling system that uses natural gas to supply electricity and heat in addition to hydrogen fuel for vehicles.

The system is equipped with fuel cells that generate electricity (5 kW) for the home, and is configured to recover the heat produced during power generation for domestic water heating.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/10/hondas_more_pow.html

[donco6]

1. Is anyone at all worried about driving around . . .

on top of a big tank of hydrogen?

Maybe it's just me . . .

[spag68]

3. hydrogen

is less volatile then gasoline.

[spag68]

2. hydrogen

A really good idea would to set up geothermal stations in yellowstone, or any other area with close to surface heat, and use the power to make the hydrogen. Iceland already has this system in operation.