It will be the first time a fuel cell big enough to run a household has been put to extended use in this country. The electricity will be used for a range of activities, from battery charging to yard lighting.

Engineers from state-owned science company Industrial Research (IRL) will manage installation of the 2 kilowatts fuel cell system, with assistance from Hydrogenz Ltd, a Wellington start-up company specialising in extracting hydrogen from alcohols.

Fuel cells consist of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen from air passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other in a chemical reaction that produces electricity, water and heat.

Batteries also rely on a chemical reaction, but unlike batteries, which consume themselves, fuel cells are almost endlessly rechargeable as long as hydrogen is provided.

The technology is already used in spacecraft, but the "alkali" fuel cells used there are expensive: they require large quantities of gold and platinum to produce the electro-chemical reaction.

Technological innovations have significantly lowered fuel cell costs by reducing the quantity of precious metals needed, and some scientists have predicted that the technology could replace the internal combustion engine in many applications by providing electricity for electric motors.
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Fuel cells have also been promoted as the key to "distributed generation", enabling each high-rise, neighbourhood or even individual homes to generate their own electricity, creating lower reliance on the national grid.

It will be the first fuel cell test in New Zealand combining a methanol "reformer" as part of its power supply – a device that extracts the hydrogen needed to run the fuel cell from hydrogen-rich methanol.

US-based company ReliOn Inc is supplying the fuel cells for the project and the company's western region manager, Ken Hydzik said in a statement that using a methanol reformer would give longer running times.

Customers using commercial fuel cells to provide back-up electricity mostly used bottled hydrogen, but a methanol reformer could be useful for applications requiring continuous electricity supply, or power in remote sites.

Another US company, Genesis Fueltech is supplying the methanol reformer for the project, and its president said the device was the most efficient so far built.

US Army Corps of Engineers project manager, Frank Holcomb, said in the same statement the demonstration project was in its fourth year of a search for alternative energy sources instead of the diesel generators now used at remote sites such as Antarctica.

Diesel generators were noisy, polluting, inefficient and a maintenance problem.

Demonstrating a fuel cell in New Zealand was part of testing the reliability of fuel cells in a range of applications and countries.

Installation of the fuel cell system is expected to take place at the Antarctic Centre next month with operation beginning in December and running for a year.

IRL will provide comprehensive monitoring and performance analysis of the system.