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The best known early fuel cell experiments were performed in 1842 by the British physicist and lawyer, Sir William R. Grove (1811-1896)

Due to easily accessible and large amounts of oil and the invention of the combustion engine (Carl Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler), fuel cells were forgotten until the middle of the 20th century. In the US Apollo space programme, fuel cells exhibited their first renaissance in the 1960’s. 

Fuel cell development has been slowed down by a fear of hydrogen as a fuel. It is commonly believed that hydrogen is an extremely explosive and dangerous gas. Most of this belief was founded in 1937, when the hydrogen-filled zeppelin “Hindenburg” caught fire and crashed in Lakehurst, USA.

Hydrogen as the Main Fuel of the Future Over the last decades hydrogen, (H2) has gained more and more attention as an environmentally friendly fuel and storage medium. Combustion of pure hydrogen produces only water as exhaust. Hydrocarbon and carbon oxide emissions can only come from motor oil in the combustion chamber. Nitrous oxide emissions result from the nitrogen content in the air and increase exponentially with the combustion temperature. By using H2 in fuel cells, practically no pollution occurs. In this respect, hydrogen offers emission levels that are much lower than existing and future standards.

Hydrogen is the most common of all elements in the universe.

The desire for a long-term transition to a hydrogen society is mainly based on the need to reduce polluting and climate-affecting emissions and the concern about depletion of fossil fuel resources. Today about 90 % of the world's energy consumption is covered by fossil fuels, and most of this comes from a limited number of regions in the world. Even if hydrogen will be used on a large scale in the future, there is still a need for an energy source to produce it. Renewable energy technology such as hydro electricity, wind, wave and solar power are in principle available, but are not yet mature for mass production and/or fully developed. 

By "biofuels" on this page, I mean fuels for vehicles, such as "biodiesel" and "bioethanol" - although you can also use the term "biofuel" to cover any kind of fuel made from living materials or their waste.

How it works Biofuels are made from two main sources: Growing crops such as corn, sugar cane, soya or rapeseed; or from palm oil Growing algae

Biofuels are made from two main sources: Growing crops such as corn, sugar cane, soya or rapeseed; or from palm oil Growing algae

Wind is simply air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface by the sun. Because the Earth's surface is made of very different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun's heat at different rates. One example of this uneven heating can be found in the daily wind cycle.

The Daily Wind Cycle During the day, the air above the land heats up more quickly than the air over water. The warm air over the land expands and rises, and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating wind. At night, the winds are reversed because the air cools more rapidly over land than over water. In the same way, the atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the Earth's equator is heated more by the sun than the land near the North and South Poles. Wind Energy for Electricity Generation Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is a renewable energy source because the wind will blow as long as the sun shines

Like old fashioned windmills, today’s wind machines (also called wind turbines) use blades to collect the wind’s kinetic energy. The wind flows over the blades creating lift, like the effect on airplane wings, which causes them to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator to produce electricity. With the new wind machines, there is still the problem of what to do when the wind isn't blowing. At those times, other types of power plants must be used to make electricity.

Geothermal Basics What Is Geothermal Energy? The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and therme (heat). So, geothermal energy is heat from within the Earth. We can recover this heat as steam or hot water and use it to heat buildings or generate electricity. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because the heat is continuously produced inside the Earth.

Geothermal energy is generated in the Earth's core. Temperatures hotter than the sun's surface are continuously produced inside the Earth by the slow decay of radioactive particles, a process that happens in all rocks. The Earth has a number of different layers:

Where Geothermal Energy is Found The ring of fire goes around the edges of the Pacific. The map shows that volcanic activity occurs around the Pacific rim.Source: National Energy Education Development Project (Public Domain) Naturally occurring large areas of hydrothermal resources are called geothermal reservoirs. Most geothermal reservoirs are deep underground with no visible clues showing above ground. But geothermal energy sometimes finds its way to the surface in the form of: Volcanoes and fumaroles (holes where volcanic gases are released) Hot springs Geysers

Energy from the Sun The sun has produced energy for billions of years.  Solar energy is the sun’s rays (solar radiation) that reach the Earth. This energy can be converted into other forms of energy, such as heat and electricity.

Photovoltaic (PV devices) or “solar cells” change sunlight directly into electricity. Individual PV cells are grouped into panels and arrays of panels that can be used in a wide range of applications ranging from single small cells that charge calculator and watch batteries, to systems that power single homes, to large power plants covering many acres.

Solar energy systems do not produce air pollutants or carbon-dioxide

One of the first applications for fuel cells based on their advantageous properties was in the US space program.

Compared to IC engines, fuel cells have practically no polluting exhaust like NOx and sulphides.

It is generally acknowledged that the feasibility and durability of fuel cells in automobiles has been proven. The major focus now is on cost reduction

Applications These wind turbines near Lamar, Colorado, are part of the 162-MW Colorado Green Wind Farm. Each turbine produces 1.5 megawatts of electricity. Wind turbines can be used as stand-alone applications, or they can be connected to a utility power grid or even combined with a photovoltaic (solar cell) system. For utility-scale (megawatt-sized) sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form a wind plant. Several electricity providers today use wind plants to supply power to their customers.

200,000 homes in the U.S. use some type of photovoltaic solar technology-and the market is expanding at a healthy 15% annually.

PV modules covering 0.3% of the land in the U.S., equivalent to one fourth of the area currently occupied by railroads, could provide all of the US's electricity needs.

Solar power is pollution free during use. Production end wastes and emissions are manageable using existing pollution controls.

In situations where connection to the electricity grid is difficult, costly, or impossible (such as island communities, areas not served by a power grid, illuminated roadside signs, and ocean-going vessels) harvesting solar power is often an economically competitive alternative to energy from traditional source

Intermittency: It is not available at night and is reduced when there is cloud cover, decreasing the reliability of peak output performance or requiring a means of energy storage.

Challenges Wind power must compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Depending on how energetic a wind site is, the wind farm may or may not be cost competitive. Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past 10 years, the technology requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled generators. Good wind sites are often located in remote locations, far from cities where the electricity is needed. Transmission lines must be built to bring the electricity from the wind farm to the city. Wind resource development may compete with other uses for the land and those alternative uses may be more highly valued than electricity generation. Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to other conventional power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and sometimes birds have been killed by flying into the rotors. Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly siting wind plants.

The United States has enough wind resources to generate electricity for every home and business in the nation. But not all areas are suitable for wind energy development.

The use of biomass energy has the potential to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Burning biomass releases about the same amount of carbon dioxide as burning fossil fuels. However, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide captured by photosynthesis millions of years ago—an essentially "new" greenhouse gas. Biomass, on the other hand, releases carbon dioxide that is largely balanced by the carbon dioxide captured in its own growth (depending how much energy was used to grow, harvest, and process the fuel).

Advantages Once you've built it, tidal power is free. It produces no greenhouse gases or other waste. It needs no fuel. It produces electricity reliably. Not expensive to maintain. Tides are totally predictable. Offshore turbines and vertical-axis turbines are not ruinously expensive to build and do not have a large environmental impact. Disadvantages A barrage across an estuary is very expensive to build, and affects a very wide area - the environment is changed for many miles upstream and downstream. Many birds rely on the tide uncovering the mud flats so that they can feed. Fish can't migrate, unless "fish ladders" are installed. Only provides power for around 10 hours each day, when the tide is actually moving in or out. There are few suitable sites for tidal barrages Is it renewable? Tidal energy is renewable. The tides will continue to ebb and flow, and the energy is there for the taking.

Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.

How it works

Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam. We drill holes down to the hot region, steam comes up, is purified and used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators.

The Sun heats our atmosphere unevenly, so some patches become warmer than others. These warm patches of air rise, other air blows in to replace them - and we feel a wind blowing. We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propellor on the top. The wind blows the propellor round, which turns a generator to produce electricity.

he best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in mountains - places where the wind is strong and reliable. Some are offshore.

The best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in mountains - places where the wind is strong and reliable. Some are offshore.

Just as solar, hydro and biomass energy has been utilized for thousands of years, hydrogen technology as a fuel source has also been known for over 150 years.

Hydrogen is a simple element - an atom with only one proton and one electron. It is also the most plentiful element in the universe. Despite its simplicity and abundance, hydrogen doesn't occur naturally as a gas on the Earth - it is always combined with other elements.

Water, for example, is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen can be separated from hydrocarbons by applying heat, a process known as "reforming" hydrogen.

The argument for tidal power is overwhelming: it’s a practically infinite supply of clean energy and has one of the smallest carbon footprints of any power source; it’s reliable, cost-efficient, has minimal effect on the marine environment and virtually zero effect on sea-gazing aesthetics. Most importantly, The World Energy Council estimates that the energy that can be harvested from world’s oceans is equal to twice the electricity that the world produces now

Archaeological evidence shows that the first human use of geothermal resources in North America occurred more than 10,000 years ago with the settlement of Paleo-Indians at hot springs