Community Energy Opportunity Finder : Renewable Energy Information

What is Hydrogen?
Renewable Energy, Hydrogen-powered BMW

As a nearly ideal energy carrier, hydrogen will play a critical role in a new, decentralized energy infrastructure that can provide power to vehicles, homes, and industries. Hydrogen boasts many important advantages over other fuels: it is non-toxic, renewable, clean to use, and packs much more energy per pound. Hydrogen is also the fuel of choice for energy-efficient fuel cells.

Hydrogen can be generated by separating the carbon and hydrogen atoms in fossil fuels such as natural gas or by extracting hydrogen from a renewable resource: water. The hdrogen extraction process can be powered by fossil fuel energy or by renewable sources like wind energy. If hydrogen is produced from water and powered by renewable energy, the energy lifecycle of hydrogen is entirely pollution-free.

More Information
Small Is Profitable, book cover

For more information, visit Rocky Mountain Institute's website; see Energy >> Fuel Cells and Hydrogen. In the on-line library (www.rmi.org/library) you can also download a number of RMI publications that discuss fuel cells and hydrogen such as:

"Twenty Hydrogen Myths" — This publication debunks popular misconceptions, and proposes a surprisingly easy, attractive, and profitable path to the hydrogen economy.
"Cleaner Energy, Greener Profits" — This publication explores the benefits of fuel cells as small, decentralized power sources.
Small Is Profitable — This publication makes the case that energy efficiency and cheaper electricity from small, renewable sources of energy will gradually replace the output of large, centralized fossil fuel-powered generating stations and nuclear plants (www.smallisprofitable.org).

www.smallisprofitable.org