I went poking around this weekend looking for fuel cells for use as backup power (I need somewhere between 7KW and 20KW of backup for use when there is no power, but I'd really like to keep the noise and footprint down). Once again, I have sought out hydrogen-based fuel cells to see what can be seen, and there are now some on the market that are looking interesting.

Ballard has a line called AirGen that can deliver 1KVA from internally stored and hot-swappable hydrogen cylinders. Noise level? 65db at 1 meter, and it's designed to use inside. Of course, it's hideously expensive ($6500).

However, in bad news, it looks like Coleman is no longer planning on selling one immediately under their own brand. It turns out that the AirGen was the PowerMate fuel cell and that is now nowhere to be seen on their site.

I'll be waiting a while longer before I see a fuel cell system in my future, but it's not entirely a pipe dream now that there are commercially available units.