Panasonic reduces size and price of “Ene-Farm” home fuel cell

although I'm still waiting or the promised of our own secure mini nuclear plant in each neighborhood, I guess that a fuel cell plant will have to do for now..

Source:
panasonic.co.jp...

200 W - 750 W for a price of 16800 EUR - 22200 USD

That's not gonna kill competition quite yet but it's a start.

Originally posted by yuniorsan
although I'm still waiting or the promised of our own secure mini nuclear plant in each neighborhood, I guess that a fuel cell plant will have to do for now..

Source:
panasonic.co.jp...

That's a lot of money for a hot water heater and enough wattage to run a small microwave oven. There is no mention of any battery system for storage of the electrical power generated. Without that the amount of electricity provided is slim even for the Japanese who generally live a lot leaner, energy wise, than us in the western world. Even with a battery system, 3/4 Kilowatt/Hour isn't much.

No wonder they are selling them in Japan, they wouldn't make much sense to anyone but the die hard environmentalist in the states.

And yet, it is still a young technology so there is much room for improvement in the future. What with all the new natural gas field finds this technology could become a major player in the home energy production market.

ETA - On a side note, I just read somewhere that the United States should be energy independent by something like 2030. Considering that we all know we are being raped by both the middle east oil producers and the big oil refiners, will getting all our energy from sources inside, or in areas controlled by, the United States mean we will finally see cheap natural gas and gasoline again. That would make this new technology much more viable and economically sensible in a lot shorter time. Or will the big oil and gas companies continue to rape our wallets even if they could cut production costs by 60% to 70%. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the big boys to play fair and pass any savings along to us, the unwashed masses.

reply to post by Chrysalis


You are not taking into account the hot water and heating though, obviously depending on where you live if will benefit you differently... Something like this would be great for the UK...

I've been doing quite a bit of research into this kinda tech over the past few weeks and this IS the future, when coupled with other technology, this will allow us to fuel our homes with our waste! At least to some degree maybe be even a large degree... Also they can make other improvements like using the waste heat to create even more electricity when the hot water or heating isn't being used. They can do this using thermoelectric generators...

This fuel cell is up to 95% efficient! Now THAT ain't bad! Can you imagine being energy independent?

Oh and also you could couple this one to a battery bank (I believe they offer this option) and then you could go off grid! Even with the fairly meager wattage...

To be honest people amaze me (this isn't just aimed at you), here is the future! Today! Yet where is the interest? Where are the comments? People just want to complain and not look to solving the problems we face at all!

These units and others like them are going into homes everywhere, NOW! This is something to be really excited about! I mean this can also power up your electric car so imagine running your car off your waste! This is EPIC! If you had the money you could do ALL of this right now! Isn't that exciting?

Now is it expensive? Sure the early adopters are going to be hit the hardest but this is the way of any tech! That being said the price is coming down in leaps and bounds and new advancements are being made all the time! Plus there is some really good competition in the field...

I could post link after link of all the stuff they have now and it is phenomenal, but why would I when no-one even seems to give a damn!

reply to post by happykat39


Again you are missing the point and just looking for a negative slant... why? Yes you can hook these up to battery banks! Of course you can! You need to be spoon fed that?

Sorry but it just baffles my brain how this stuff doesn't make people giddy with excitement! What I can suggest is look into it all a bit more, you will have to dig around a bit but there are real solutions in this tech! I mean they already have 1MW power stations for this! It is entirely scalable! Think about it! Ebay use it! Google uses it! Fedex uses it!

This system is aimed to be competitive in the market so that people can actually have this wonderful product right now! 750 is plenty of electric for everyday things like your TV and PC and lighting etc... When you need more just take it from the grid or a battery bank... This is amazing! Please get excited!!!!!!!

Can you imagine in 5-10 years?

ETA You are thinking very small... Forget getting the power form someone else! Produce it yourself! This tech is already here! Your toilet will separate the urine and feces using the urine for fertilizer and the feces to produce methane! Infact you can use any organic matter to produce the methane so all your household waste too! Don't look for more energy dependency! Look to be independent!