$41 Million in Federal Funds Enough To Get Fuel Cell Technology Affordable?

Combined, $41 Million Federal Government Grant Funds Green Energy Research on Long Island, NY.

You may have seen or heard of fuel cell cars. Rather than using petroleum fuel, the most common fuel cells in cars is hydrogen and oxygen which then create electricity for the car to move. Refueling? When you run out of the fuels you do have to go and replenish the hydrogen and the oxygen. Advantage? No fuel emissions of the sort that are causing climate changes. Problems? Not so easy to set up Hydrogen filling stations (and I think the gas itself is expensive) and 2) pretty expensive so far to manufacture the fuel cell, as well as to keep them stable and safe. For more info on fuel efficiency and costs, see this article and scroll down to the chart , mid- page.

What if one could address the cost?

I test drove one once when I was in LA. I had seen .. oh, who was it? .. Halle Berry

….stepping into her hydrogen fuel cell car, and decided I wanted to go and try one myself. If they really do reduce emissions are do not have to be limited in terms of range, then I want one. The only tough thing about electric cars is I can’t make it further than 250 miles, the entire trip. For most tasks in town and around home, that’s fine, but not for out of town driving. I want one car that can do it all: release no emissions and yet get me where I need to go.

So I tried it. The local dealer said they were only sold in LA at that time. So the next time I was in LA I tried one of these BMW hydrogen 7. (If you want to test drive one, heck! see one! they are currently touring, and here’s the list of places they are visiting and when.) Spendy, yes. Why only in LA? Filling stations: they tested the market in LA first thus established a couple of filling stations there.

Click here to view Jay Leno show the car in action, and its exhaust.. he drinks it…

For the car manufacturer to buy a fuel cell to place into the car, they must pass the cost on to the customer. The car becomes even more expensive.

Again, anyone want to spend on researching the making of the affordable and functional fuel cell? (Yes, yes, I will. How much research will $195.67 buy? NO? Not enough?)

But wait. Look. The government has just spent over $183 MILLION to get technologies to move forward and by all means to get “GREEN”. See now, this just gets me excited.

A lab based on Long Island near New York City, Brookhaven National Laboratory is currently building the NLST II, and preforming a wide range of research in their older labs. In all actuality, BNL got $183.4 Million from the government, mostly to expedite the construction of their new facility, the National Synchrotron Light Source II. They claim, “When built, NSLS-II will be the brightest x-ray source in the world, helping to drive abundant, safe, and clean energy technologies.” (see BNL Federal Funding article here.) BNL is using the funds to “to drive abundant, safe, and clean energy technologies and… (to) research in solar energy, biofuels, solid state lighting, and superconductivity…” (BNL NEWS POST).

Specifically about fuel cell technology: Brookhaven National Laboratory has been given $25 Million , with matching NY State funds of $2.5 Million over five years to research ways to make the fuel cells more affordable and to help getting them on the market sooner. Stony Brook University , working alongside BNL in this research, has been given $17 Million in federal funds and $1.7 Million in NY State funds for energy research.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is located in Upton, NY. It is one of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It is serious place where they research a variety of topics. They look into physical, biomedical, and environmental science topics, energy technologies and national security as well. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology . (BNL web page)

OO.. but that’s not all. The Recovery Act has earmarked $1.6 BILLION ! allocated to the DOE Office of Science by Congress to work on clean energy and create jobs that help crete teh climate changes we need to affect. All this science stuff may feel a bit on the dry side of the excitement scale, but when you look at the prospect of the government actually spending on something that will improve the life of our children and theirs, now that is exciting to me. This announcement illustrates the desire for a new age of technology, a new level of american expertise, a bigger american presence in the cleaning up of what we G-10 countries have largely caused on this earth. This all to me is very exciting. Yes indeed-y.

You and Grants:

Hey! These federal funds were granted to BNL in the last few months. This is a part of the new government policy on grants. They are seeking to fund different kinds of things. The time to look into grants really IS now . Funds are being assigned. It is never, repeat never, too late to go and look to see what funds may be available for you. Yes there are tons of funds and projects out there. Tomorrow I will post another of my trivia pieces to see if you know just ow much is being disbursed. So just go and look just to get a sampling of what is out there. Click on www.grants.gov, an alright place to start. Just look around. Ready to apply and need help ? Need to focus your search? Need to cut your time in seraching? By all means get this package now. Click Here.