Propane Fuel-Cells Rock!
The Alaska Energy Technology Development Laboratory did work on a new type of propane fuel-cell that is designed to create electricity through a chemical reaction rather than a heat and steam driven turbine system. The research on this fuel cell was done originally to apply to off-the-grid facilities that needed a reliable power source. The technology could easily be applied to larger industrial power plants and it would be a better system for controlling the environmental impact on the air, land and water than current electrical power plant technologies.
There are some interesting companies out there who are pioneering fuel-cell electricity generation. One of them is a company called FuelCell Energy [www.fuelcellenergy.com] and they recently installed a system in a community college in New Jersey. Read more about this story here. [www.iags.org] One of the interesting things about this story is that the community college ends up saving money by installing on-site electricity for their campus. If your electricity provider is not going to offer you green energy at a fair rate, then you can always take matters into your own hands. It will actually cost you less in the long run. Additionally, you can always point it out to people and feel good about yourself.
