For more than a decade, Humboldt State University’s Schatz Energy Lab has used a solar-hydrogen system to power an entire marine laboratory. But could this rare technology, along with other renewable energy sources, ever make it mainstream?
The energy lab directors are confident the answer is “Yes.” But they are much less sanguine as to the circumstances that will bring about this revolution in how we fuel our economy.
In their estimate, either strong American leadership in the vein of the 1960s space program will provide the impetus for the switch or, in a much more grim scenario, we’ll simply run out of fossil fuels and will then have no choice but to scramble for alternatives.
An earlier version of this story first aired June 24, 2005.
- Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC), Humboldt State University
- The Schatz Solar Hydrogen Project, SERC
- Frequently Asked Questions About Hydrogen, SERC
- Fuel Cell Vehicle Website, Institute for Transportation Studies, UC Davis
- The State of California’s Hydrogen Highway project
- Publications from the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab, UC Berkeley
- California Fuel Cell Partnership, a “collaborative of auto manufacturers, energy companies, fuel cell technology companies, and government agencies.”
- Links to Peak Oil resources from K. Deffeyes, Princeton University