Conventional-looking family home shows that a combination of solar and hydrogen power can generate all the electricity for heating and cooling his house year-round and run a full range of appliances including such power-guzzlers as a hot tub and a wide-screen TV without paying a penny in utility bills.In the summer, the solar panels generate 60 percent more electricity than the super-insulated house needs. The excess is stored in the form of hydrogen which is used in the winter -- when the solar panels can't meet all the domestic demand -- to make electricity in the fuel cell. Strizki also uses the hydrogen to power his fuel-cell driven car, which, like the domestic power plant, is pollution-free.
But the $100,000 tag is still too high for the project to be widely replicated, said Marchant Wentworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group in Washington. To be commonly adopted, such installations would have to be able to sell excess power to the grid, generating a revenue stream that could be used to attract capital...