This is The Hopewell Project, the first Solar-Hydrogen Residence in North America. 56 solar panels provide excessive amounts of energy to Mike Strizki's 280m2 home during the Summer months, and the excess (150% more than is needed) is used to convert water into hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored in 10 giant tanks sited well away from the residence. There is even enough spare hydrogen to power Strizki's hydrogen-fuel car. The system was cheap though, running to $500,000. It was also a nightmare for building code officials (Department of Community Affairs) who didn't know how to handle the potential risks of liquid hydrogen.
The picture (right) only shows the shed that sites the solar panels and contains the transformer, battery and electrolysis equipment.
Here is an excellent video presented by Strizki himself, describing the various components in detail:
The Guardian reports that wafer thin solar cells are now being manufactured on aluminium film. The firm is Nanosolar, a Silicon Valley startup which anticipates an eventual price of £0.50 per Watt. Current technologies are priced at many times this amount.
Okay, not just yet - but soon we may have much cheaper solar panels. This is down to research by the Colorado State University. The panels will be made by AVA Solar, and production should start towards the end of next year. The manufacturing process is also claimed to have a lower environmental impact, although it does use cadmium telluride (CdTe) which sounds quite nasty.
