Imagine a world where all it took to power a car was sunshine and tap water. That isn’t a pipe dream but, rather, the reality of emerging technology that someday could turn your house into a personal, zero-emission gas station.
It’s called a residential hydrogen refueler, and only one currently exists. Tucked away on the Torrance campus of Honda R&D behind a security guard and a locked gate, the sleek system is designed to power Honda’s limited-production FCX Clarity sedan and other hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
The system uses solar panels — a 6-kilowatt array of thin-film cells, to be precise — to power a machine the size of a mini-refrigerator that sips in H2O and breaks it apart into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The hydrogen is then pumped directly into the car, which uses the gas to generate electricity for the car’s electric motor. No fossil fuels, no pollution, no additional strain on the power grid — and all done at home.
• Read the full Los Angeles Times story.
