New (Flow) Battery Design Could Help Solar and Wind Energy Power the Grid

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25. You could generate your own hydrogen from a solar array

but that's not the real problem. You then need to compress it to at least 700 bar, or about 10,000 lbs/in². That takes a tremendous amount of energy. In the GM Equinox fuel cell vehicle there were two carbon fiber/epoxy tanks under the car, each about 10' long. With both of them pumped up to that intense pressure, the vehicle has 70 miles of range.

If you look at any official stats you'll see all kinds of range claims, but I live about 3 miles from where the GM testing center for those Equinoxes was in Burbank, CA. I was in Pep Boys one day and there was one in the parking lot. As the store was uncrowded, I managed to find the driver and have a nice little chat with him. 70 miles of range - that's it. That was two years ago, I know range has improved since then, but with Teslas on the market with 220+ miles IMO they are never going to catch up with EVs in price or range. And you can charge your Tesla at home.

Regardless of how efficient you make the hydrogen process, it will always use more energy than you get back from it. So unless you have an extremely compelling reason to convert energy to free hydrogen, you're better off just charging a battery. The energy wasted by compression and inefficiencies of the cell itself isn't even close to the resistance of an Li-Ion battery, which are 80-90% efficient.