For now, though, solid oxide looks like a future bet. Beyond the technology used, other issues remain before widespread commercial adoption of fuel cells. And given their fuel source, hydrogen, there is apprehension about indoor installations of fuel cells. Environmentally, all fuel-cell technologies are winners. At the tail end of the generating process, fuel cells produce only drinkable water, or sometimes a little carbon dioxide, as waste.
Efficiency is increased.
Not only is the conversion of stored energy in fuels such as coal and gas an inherently low-efficiency process, but also running electricity long distances over the grid is extremely wasteful, with substantial transmission losses. Fuel cells can offer about twice that overall efficiency, ignoring possible cogeneration gains but including transmission-efficiency improvements. There are obvious reliability issues here, too. When the grid goes down, everyone's power goes down. In a unitized or distributed-generation system, the failure of a single unit affects only the user or users of that unit.