Some even dream of using natural gas to make hydrogen which would power fuel-cell cars, though advocates admit that these are still a long way off.
ECONOMIST: What bigger estimates of America��s reserves could mean
More reliability would have come from water-proof substations, building-centric Bloom fuel-cell power and local micro-grids.
FORBES: New York, Black Swans, Blackouts and Anti-Fragile Grids
Meanwhile, there is a proliferation of electronic devices in houses and offices, which would benefit from the high-quality power promised by fuel-cell generators.
The plasmatron probably wouldn't be able to power a fuel-cell vehicle by itself or eliminate the need for hydrogen-fueling stations but, say the engineers, it could be a bridge to hydrogen technology.
Similarly, in Glastonbury, CT, a Whole Foods grocery store kept the coolers running during a power outage with its 200-kW fuel cell made by UTC Power, which dramatically reduced inventory losses resulting from food spoilage.
In another exciting development, researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a self-charging power cell that's able to directly convert mechanical energy into chemical energy, making it possible to harvest up to five times more energy from footsteps.
Connecticut boasts the largest concentration of fuel-cell companies in the United States, including leading fuel-cell manufacturers UTC Power, Proton OnSite and Fuel Cell Energy.
Mike Brown, an executive with UTC Power, a leading fuel-cell maker, said the fuel cells need to last at least four or five years for the technology to be competitive.
FORBES: The Economics of Bloom Energy's 'Breakthrough' Fuel Cell
Background location data, both with live GPS for backgrounded turn-by-turn, and cell tower-based for lower power draw.
ENGADGET: iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer
Thanks to a series of severe storms that clobbered electric-power grids in New York and Connecticut recently, the fuel-cell industry appears poised for a modest to massive growth spurt.
The Cell is too power-hungry for handheld devices, and it would need to have its mathematical functions tweaked to be really suitable for use in supercomputers.
Standard features are plentiful and include leather upholstery, heated front seats, a power moonroof and a Bluetooth hands-free cell-phone interface.
But until recently they have suffered from a low power-to-weight ratio, unlike the other sort of room-temperature fuel cell, the temperamental and costly proton-exchange-membrane device, which several firms hope soon to use in motor cars.
Instead of selling individual units, they would offer a low-power system that relied on a solar cell or car battery in remote areas without grid electricity.
Instead of selling individual units, they would offer a low-power system that relied on a solar cell or car battery in remote areas that didn't have grid electricity.
Bad news for the electric power grid is usually good news for the fuel-cell industry.
They include Applied Solar, which also plans to build power plants for Indian cell towers, and M-KOPA, a startup created by the founders of M-PESA, the leading mobile-payment service in Kenya and Tanzania.
FORBES: Cleantech Startup Finds Poor Villagers Are More Profitable Than Mobile Telecom
Operating on battery power when untethered, the KMC 3 utilizes eight D-cell batteries that allow for up to 26 hours of listening.
ENGADGET: Klipsch's Music Center KMC 3 Bluetooth speaker costs $400, will be available in June
About one in 200 children are born with faulty mitochondria - the tiny power stations which provide energy to every cell in the body.
Cell-towers are dependent on electric power from the grid, but many of them have backup batteries, and in some cases generators that can power the antennas independently for longer.
The so-called SLIVER cell technology will produce electric power from sunlight for operating electronic devices improving tactical awareness in close combat settings, replacing the need for heavy, burdensome batteries.
When Hurricane Irene hammered the Northeast in August, many cell-phone towers and switching stations lost power for long periods of time.
From 30 precious milligrams drilled out of the sample they extracted mitochondrial DNA. The mitochondria, a cell's power packs, are the much-modified descendants of bacteria that took up residence in the ancestors of modern animal and plant cells a billion years ago.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this design is its dual-mode power system, which consists of the standard solar cell array as well as a nuclear power source, allowing the rover to operate continuously and in areas that go long periods without sunlight.
ENGADGET: Chinese engineers reveal nuclear-powered lunar rover
Furukawa Battery, the Tokyo-based supplier of power systems , is commercializing a magnesium fuel cell technology that generates electricity using salt water as an electrolyte.
Also important, this processing power combined with advanced digital radio interface and signaling capabilities enables small-cell base stations to operate in a more efficient and dynamic mesh network, as opposed to a relatively static, point-to-point macro only system.
FORBES: The Solution For The Bandwidth Shortage? Better Silicon Devices
And many electric utilities have facilities that create hydrogen power, but consumers can't just pull in with a fuel-cell vehicle and say, "Fill 'er up!"
One of the only exceptions was the Rixos Hotel, where government minders came to check their e-mail (and charge their cell phones, as the power shortages got worse).
应用推荐