Solar Storage Via Hydrogen [RE-wrenches]

[Scott Suddreth, Rock Castle Solar]

Fellow wrenches,

        I'm working with a college who is building an "Ecodorm " They have a
little over 5 kw of Siemens pv that will be covering the roof and serving as
shading devices for the building.   They will also have hot water panels
preheating two Munchkin boilers for radiant heat for the whole building. The
local utility will not net meter but only offer the $0.02 perkwh for
generated cost. The concern is, that during a few times of year due to the
college schedule, the building's loads will be practically nothing and we
are trying to come up with worthy solutions of storing that surplus power.
We are in the process of getting a hydrogen fuel cell to integrate into the
system for demonstraton purposes as electrical generation and congenration
with its waste heat aiding the solar system  to preheat water. My question
to the group is: Is it feasible to use that excess power to directly drive
an electrolyzer to split water to generate Hydrogen to store to later feed
the fuel cell? I have never seen such a setup, but it seems like a good
concept. Has anybody heard of this or have any other good ideas on other
alternative ways to store surplus power. (I have also considered compressing
air).

    Secondly, does anybody have charts or tables or weblinks to rules of
thumb for determining flow rates for flat plate solar water loops. I thought
i had some but cannot seem to find it.

Thanks in advance.

Scott Suddreth
Southface Energy Institute
Boone, NC
grateful at boone.net

"Every minute, we send another $200,000 to the Middle East for oil"
How much time do we have?


(formerly with Rock Castle Solar)

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