Integrating a Prius into an Off-Grid Home

Talk about a thread revival....

On a serious note, this is an area where I've thought that a hydrogen fuel cell system would work well: Hydrogen House Project: The Hydrogen House

Use PV to create the hydrogen, then run the hydrogen through a fuel cell to generate power for the house. If you're finding yourself using more hydrogen than your creating, you can always get your hydrogen tank filled up externally.

This might be a good niche for some of those practically free Mirai's: Toyota Used Mirai's, for Free? | PriusChat

 

That house is using eleven propane tanks to store the hydrogen.

Good thing he has 11 acres.

Compressing the gas would require smaller tanks, but those tanks will have a higher cost, and the system now needs a compressor, that further increases the price. The electrolyzer runs off a battery, I'm guessing it is best or the system to have steady production of gas instead of in cycles with the solar panel output. Oh, there is 21kW PV panels on the property. Grid tied home systems, and this house is grid tied, are in the 3 to 7 kW range.

No details on the cars, but without commercial refueling equipment, I expect the amount of hydrogen they can hold means a range around that of a gen1 Leaf.

This project started before the steep price reductions in Li-ion, but now you can get the same results with less resources and money with just PV and batteries.

Now, hydrogen might work for grid scale energy storage of renewables. It can be used in a fuel cell or turbine, or displace some natural gas in that network. But I don't see it being viable until demand for grid storage outstrips the supply of batteries and other solutions, like pumped water.

 

Looks like a heck of a lot of materials and energy use needed to create a situation involving very little materials and energy use.

 

Yeah, his is pretty excessive, but my guess is that he overbuilt because he could (and he has a pretty large house).

Also, I'm not saying that it would necessarily be cheaper than a battery bank solution, just that it has a better chance than with a FCV vs BEV.