By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published April 2, 2009
A new housing development in Aiken will offer four houses that rely on hydrogen that will virtually end the residents’ reliance on the local power company, according to the developer.
Ridge at Chukker Creek development will have 75 energy-efficient homes in its initial phase. Four of those homes will be unlike anything offered to homebuyers before, developer Ron Monahan said Wednesday in Columbia at the National Hydrogen Association meeting.
The system will use solar power from rooftop panels to produce hydrogen. So, unlike some hydrogen production processes, such as the use of natural gas, the entire system will produce no greenhouse gases. Surplus hydrogen created with solar power will be stored, and it will power the house at night or on cloudy days, thanks to a fuel cell.
The houses will be wired into Aiken Electric Cooperative and can use the utility grid as a fallback. The homeowners also can sell surplus power to the utility. According to Scott Greenway of Greenway Energy, over a year’s time, the home’s net usage of grid power should be zero.
The developers say this will be the first U.S. commercial development to offer such an option. The only similar house was one in New Jersey that was modified by its owner, an engineer. This puts the S.C. project ahead even of efforts in Monahan’s home base, the liberal-trending Boulder, Colo. “Aiken is ahead of Boulder,” Monahan said.
Project architect George Watt said the system will make the upfront cost of the house about $10 to $20 more per square foot than that of the energy-efficient homes in the rest of the development. That equates to $20,000 to $40,000 for a 2,000-square-foot home. But the home could expect to save $200 to $220 per month on utilities, versus the extra $60 or $70 per month in the mortgage, Watt said.
Four houses with the hydrogen fuel cell are planned for this year, and more could be added as demand requires, he said.
The project is a joint venture of the Aiken County Center for Hydrogen Research, Aiken Electric Cooperative, Greenway Energy and the developer.
