Hydrogen is no more a manufactured fuel than crude oil. We don’t fill our vehicles with it. Yes, we find oil in nature, but then what must be done, and expended to get it to the end user? Gasoline is net negative in an energy balance equation, as is nuclear. Solar power’s number is something like 0.15. Does that stop us from finding them valuable?

Ulf’s comment reminds me of a bumpersticker I used to see in Germany in the 70′s. Roughly translated, it said “I don’t need nuclear power- I get my electricity from the wall socket.” What gets consumed to generate all that electricity that he expects to “fuel” vehicles?

The right question to ask regarding valuation and policy is whether or not we are taking full consideration of the full cost of any choice – and for oil that means the costs of energy security and the health costs associated with emissions.

Stationary fuel cells, by the way, are not simply a more complicated replacement technology for combustion based DG. In addition to the societal values noted above, they also provide a number of benefits to the end user that combustion technoogies don’t.

We can no longer plan our future using today’s yardsticks and metrics – otherwise we recreate the past.

I’m only now realizing, having read some of the links you sent me, the approach Ion America is taking. If they truly have the ability to produce electricity/heat from a fossil-fuel source AND produce hydrogen, then perhaps an IA system in every home and business will help the PEFC/PEMFC fuel cells guys fulfill their transportation dreams, as you said. Storage is still an issue, mind you, but at least you get around some of the larger infrastructure issues. It sounds promising, but I still have to hold a healthy dose of skepticism before I see some more concrete data. I do like the idea, however, of having a flexible system that can produce more or less hydrogen based on how much electricity you need at the time. Would love to see projections on what this technology will cost a few years down the road, assuming it works as touted.

And you (and Ulf and Redstone) are absolutely right: there will never be the “hydrogen economy” that we dreamed aloud about during the Stuart Energy heyday!

But even the best SOFC is just another DG technology to make CHP a little better – add hydrogen and you get to cover all those dreamers!

Just because Ion America has been kept a “secret” does not make it special. And just maybe the address of IA helped it raise $165m – Sunnyvale, Calif.

Try getting that kind of money in Michigan.

But IA is called a “hydrogen fuel company” and this makes the IA SOFC/SOEC technology and approach even more interesting.