H2PIA: A Vision of a Hydrogen Future
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.06
Here is a bucolic, utopian vision of the future, a brave new suburban world with a hydrogen powered car in every garage and an organic chicken in every pot. H2Pia generates power from wind and sun to make hydrogen so that everyone can live the hybrid suburban (shown here) , unplugged exurban or young swinging urban lifestyle."H2PIA is based upon self-sufficiency, clean energy, and a constructive partnership between the public and the private sector. H2PIA will work to secure and enhance our welfare in a way that balances our energy needs with the cost to the environment and our climate of producing this energy. The key attribute of the hydrogen society is that people produce their own energy. This is how it works:"
H2PIA unplugged is for the devoted energy enthusiasts, the believers who also crave space and freedom, who want a life of peace and quiet on the outskirts of H2PIA.
"The renewable energy comes from solar or wind power and is used to split H2O – ordinary water – into H2 and O2 – hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is vented into the atmosphere, which already contains about 20 percent O2. The hydrogen is used in fuel cells that can produce energy, for instance in the form of electricity and heat. In the fuel cell, the energy is created by silent electrochemical processes with no pollution. The only product left over when the hydrogen is used up, is pure water. During periods with low energy demand, we can store the hydrogen. Then, when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, we use the stored hydrogen."
Villa Plugged is for people of all ages, the laid-back and the active ones – in short anyone who does not want to be bothered with the energy systems, but just want the amount of energy available, that they need.
H2PIA is projected to start construction in 2007 somewhere in Denmark. We are thrilled to learn that we can return to a 1950's suburban lifestyle with no suffering, no cutting back, no trouble at all. James Howard Kunstler, suck on this! ::H2PIA
I am sooo in love with this!!!
Why are the buildings situated so that the sun isn't shining on the solar panels?
Also, how many KW do the solar panels and the windmill deliver? How much energy does the house use? How much energy do the vehicles use? And why hydrogen - it looks like it would only be required for the vehicles, if the sunflower crop doesn't turn out...
It seems that someone didn't do the math. It's rather meaningless until someone runs and shares the numbers.
Cool picture, though! If it would work, I would love to live there!
How silly. The girls in bikinis and hippy dresses watering the lawn, while a car drives by, are nice touches.
So, in this "oil-free" future, how exactly is that road paved? How are the plastics, tires, etc on those cars made?
Not a bad idea - will there be enough energy to run the TV? I don't know about Denmark, but here in the US we don't like to "be bothered with energy systems", unless it means higher prices at the pump. I do like the portable record player.
So let me get this straight:
Not a very intelligent future.
"So, in this "oil-free" future, how exactly is that road paved? How are the plastics, tires, etc on those cars made?"
One step at a time, we cant expect everything to change at once especailly when the system around this utopia will be unchanged. Frankly if this idea is realized by 2007 then that is an enourmous leap for environmentalism, this has the potential to be a turning point in history. Just think if every house and building could be self sufficient. You would have a lot less coal burning plants, less nuclear power and nuclear waste, less hydro dams interupting natural water ways. A huge amount of the worlds emitions and pollution would be severely lessened. All i have to say is thank mother earth this is finally happening!
I come from ontario canada and one of our big debates right now is what are we going to do about power consumption. It keeps going up, prices for electricity keep going up they are closing down all the coal burning plants by 2009 to replace them with more nuclear reactors and natural gas plants. The main argument coming from the left is conservation and efficiency so we dont have to build more plants. where as from the right its more nuclear power and natural gas plants. I have always liked the idea of conservation and self power generation through solar and wind. I will be eagerly watching the events around this.
-she is using graywater i am sure.
-hydrogen powered SUV.
-the solar cells are on the south side you can't see, the giant windows facing north are to take advantage of ambient diffused light that will provide a more comfortable living area.
-um, clearcut lawn, um, yeah ok, that one can’t have a decent answer unless it is a native grass garden in early spring.
I stared at those pics for a while until I could justify it.
I certainly don't object to the happy bikini people... I object to perpetuating the myth that distributing and storing hydrogen is going to be a walk in the park. As of now, and probably for years to come, the cost of a single hydrogen fueling station is in the quarter million dollar range, while a single rapid charger costs instally under $10.000. So where do you think the industry will go? Explain that to me again?
Yes, there's a lot wrong with these pictures but we need images like them so that we can imagine what a renewable future will actually look like. What will a renewable future look like that I can start building today?
These buildings with their curved solar surfaces (to be oriented to solar south in reality) remind me of some of Leandre Poisson's design and the triangular, earth-bermed house he build in NH back in the 1970s. I also recall a proposal for a curved solar surface greenhouse at a college in the Midwest back in those days. The solar curve can be "tuned" to the latitude and longitude and siting of the specific installation so that as much of the solar surface is perpendicular, normal, to the sun at the place every day around the year.
This can't be America - there are no fat people!
I for one welcome our new bikini clad overlords!
Haha, All you people that posted comments about how things work on these pictures make me laugh.
First off these are just PICTURES!! They aren't the actual thing. The pictures are probably just to show people that life can be good with this technology. They don't have to be "correct."
Do concept cars come off the production line exactly they way they were first designed? I think not.
I'm sure the real thing would be a lot different.
As for the post that said Hydrogen in hard to store. I agree with that, but things are going to progress step-by-step. Maybe fast or maybe slow... Who knows... no one.
Think about our society today... did our parents even imagine what the "internet" was when they were our age? Unless they were the developers or in some realated engineeing/career field they probably didn't even imagine what it would've been like.
Nice vision of the future, I am sure someday it will be achievable. I like the architecture of the drawings.
Technically though, the best possible way to supply energy needs in the future will be fusion.
People that ask about plastics probably have not considered that there are renewable-crop-origin alternatives already... and many more to come.
A sweet vision (especially the ladies doing the watering) that might fly for a few people in Denmark.
But what of the rest of, Danes or not?
Kunstler is correct--the future of American suburbia, at least, is more likely one of decay in the US, a decline to slums inhabited by renters or squatters, even abandonment of those places that cannot transform themselves into walkable villages.
This site rocks!!!!