By Ley Garnett

PORTLAND--President Bush created a stir last year when he proposed a new line of cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Production of those vehicles is decades away. But small generators powered by fuel cells are actually in use today, as Ley Garnett found out when he went to a Tri-Met garage.

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Beneath the bows of a small grove of pine trees, Tri-Met environmental engineer Kevin Considine unlocks an inconspicuous metal box about the size of a refrigerator and flips a few switches.

Six tanks of hydrogen sit on one side of the box. Electronic equipment fills the other side.

Kevin Considine: These are what we call the proton exchange units. Inside each of these is where the little chemical reaction takes place from oxygen to hydrogen and it creates a tiny little bit of friction and tiny little bit of electricity.

Considine says this small device serves as a backup generator for a building at a Tri-Met garage in east Portland.

Kevin Considine: And it provides about 48 volts of power and will provide continuous power for that particular facility for about 48 hours.

Considine says this small unit is quite a contrast to the noisy, smelly diesel generator it replaced.

Kevin Considine: This really provides a pollution free option instead of having a hydrocarbon powered generator. And with the price of hydrocarbon fuels these days, it just makes sense to look at something that's a little bit more of an alternative. It's clean. It's efficient. The only emissions that you're going to get off this unit are a small amount of water vapor coming off of it.

This is one of two hydrogen fuel cell generators sponsored by the Bonneville Power Administration.

Considine predicts the gadget will become a lot more common in the future.

Kevin Considine: This probably doesn't make sense for a lot of application for like a home use, but certainly can be cost competitive with a diesel generator. If you're looking to install a diesel generator, you might look at a fuel cell as another opportunity. That's the way we saw it.

Tri-Met spokeswoman Mary Fetsch says the transit agency is especially interested in the technology because some day it could be applied to buses that are now powered by ever more expensive diesel fuel.

Mary Fetsch: I think what this does is launch us on a path closer to getting fuel cell buses. The technology is probably five to ten years away from actually being able to have a bus operate on fuel cells. So it's just starting to really catch on.

Bonneville Power Administration spokesman Ed Mosey says the fuel cell units cost about $6000 each.

Ed Mosey: Hopefully, as we begin to mass produce them, the prices will come down and you'll see them even at the local level at homes, not just in large buildings as backup generators.

The hydrogen used in these fuel cells was produced from traditional fossil fueled energy sources.

So the net benefit to the environment, in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, is negligible. But Mosey says the BPA might have an answer.

Ed Mosey: Perhaps the Columbia River system would be a good producer of hydrogen because you've got a lot of hydropower, some of it available at night when it's not being used for other purposes.

Starting next month, the BPA will sponsor public tours of its two pilot fuel cell generators hoping to spur interest in the technology.