The results are in and the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada (pictured) won the Hydrogen Student Design Contest 2 this year. The contest was sponsored by the Hydrogen Education Foundation.
Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan had two different teams in the competition that won honorable mention. The theoretical budget for the hydrogen homes were $28 million. Teams from the U. S., Canada, Turkey and other countries spent 6 months designing their hydrogen homes.
The University of Waterloo designed a 76,000 student center that was powered by solar, wind and biomass plus hydrogen. The excess electricity created by the renewable energy sources was used to electrolyze water into H2 and run it through a fuel cell at times when the other renewable sources were falling short such as at night or when the wind wasn’t blowing much.
Excess hydrogen was also used by the Waterloo team to power an H2 vehicle as well. One person who could have added to this competition would have been Mike Strizki who built the first hydrogen home in New Jersey. Strizki also used excess hydrogen created by solar to power the hydrogen car parked in his garage.
But, the Hydrogen Student Design Contest 2 nonetheless was an opportunity for college age students to get their hands deeply involved in the clean energy future of this country. And, only good can come from this.