One day this might be an option for homes
If the technology ever becomes cheap enough, this could be an option for homes as well. It turns out from my last electric/gas bill that with a fuel cell with 50% efficiency (which has already been achieved in production environments), I can use natural gas to produce my electric needs at 60% of the price of what I now pay for electricity. In states with a net metering requirement for utilities, this means I could actually produce more electricity than I need 24/7 and sell it back to the electric utility at a profit (my gas and electric utility are one and the same, making it even more delicious).
The big problem is that a fuel cell big enough for most homes is in the $50,000 range to purchase and install. Even though you can make electricity at profit, it still takes too long to make back that initial investment. Let's hope advances in fuel cells such as from Bloom Energy will bring that down.
