The 49-year-old engineer hopes to help usher in the high-tech future of renewable energy from his 12-acre property in the Sourland Mountains by having the nation's first solar/hydrogen-powered home.

All that stands between Strizki and his goal, however, is a building permit.

"If Thomas Edison ever had to get electricity through now, it would never happen," Strizki said.

Strizki believes local and state officials have held up his project unnecessarily.

That project, which is being paid in part with a $225,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, would enable him to produce and store enough renewable energy to completely power his home.

It also would provide pollution-free fuel for the prototype car in his garage that runs off a hydrogen fuel cell.

The aim: Strizki wants to show it's possible to produce all the electricity and fuel a family could need, without polluting and without having to pay a power company or oil company a dime.

The project

Strizki's solar/hydrogen system works, at least in theory, like this:

On sunny days, solar panels on the roof of Strizki's garage would generate more than enough electricity to power his home. Instead of sending the excess energy back into the main power grid, Strizki wants to send it to a $75,000 device called an electrolyzer. The device holds water that would then be broken down into its elements -- oxygen and hydrogen. The pure oxygen woould get blown off into the atmosphere, while the hydrogen would be stored at a low pressure in 10 1,000-gallon propane tanks on his property. The filled tanks would hold enough hydrogen to power a hydrogen fuel cell for 31¼2 months.

In the winter, when the days aren't as long and solar panels aren't as effective, any extra power Strizki's home requires would be supplied by the stored hydrogen and an $18,000 hydrogen fuel cell.

The stored hydrogen also would be used to power the New Jersey Genesis, a zero-emissions car Strizki helped design and now maintains for the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Bob McConnell, a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado for the past 26 years, said demonstration projects such as Strizki's can be very valuable. He said engineers need to find ways to make today's renewable energy systems more efficient, and a well-run experiment can produce important data.

Strizki worked for the New Jersey Department of Transportation's office of technology for 16 years. Through that job and others, he was involved in integrating hydrogen fuel cells into cars, boats, a fire truck and even a NASA airplane. He has a master's degree in engineering and is a master mechanic. He is unflinchingly confident that he and his team of experts are the most qualified people to handle the installation of the solar/hydrogen system.

Strizki readily admits the technology is expensive now, but he hopes to find ways to make it more affordable once he demonstrates that the system works. He believes hydrogen technology, in time, could solve the United States' dependence on foreign oil, and save the environment.

"This is a prototype system; you're not going to see thousands of these going up in the state next week," Strizki said. "You have to start somewhere in order to develop this technology and make it affordable for the average person."

McConnell agreed.

"Of course it's not a cost-effective project," he said. "The very first pioneering projects like this never are."

The delays

Strizki said his solar/hydrogen system is 85 percent built and could be up and running in a few weeks if he could secure all the permits he needs to proceed. But that's the problem.

Because the technology is so new, building codes and regulations concerning residential hydrogen systems don't exist. Strizki's project languished for months last year after East Amwell's zoning officer refused to sign off on it. It took a special ordinance from the township and the appointment of a new zoning officer for Strizki to proceed to the point where he could apply for a building permit.

Stewart Doddy, East Amwell's building inspector, then decided to ask the state's Department of Community Affairs to take over review of the project because he lacked the expertise, and it's been in that department's hands since Strizki submitted his plans in January.

Strizki complains that the Department of Community Affairs is treating the project as a commercial project -- which it's not -- and the extra scrutiny has made things difficult and unduly expensive.

He adds that because his solar/hydrogen system is a residential demonstration project overseen by a licensed engineer, the department could -- and should -- let it proceed without regulating it like a commercial installation.

Sean Darcy, a Department of Community Affairs spokesman, said Strizki's project will be released once all regulations are met and the safety concerns of officials are satisfied. Although Strizki may not agree with decisions made by the agency that have resulted in his project's delay, Darcy said records show that each time Strizki submitted or resubmitted plans, the agency responded promptly with comments and questions, always within a few days.

Robert Davidson, a New Jersey building codes expert who has experience working with the Department of Community Affairs and who is teaching a continuing education class through the center for government services at Rutgers University about hydrogen codes, said he understands Strizki's frustration. But he also understands the department's reason for caution.

"There's not a lot of these fuel cells in operation in New Jersey at this time, so the code officials' experience with them is limited," Davidson said. "So they're going to make sure they cover every single item and make sure they get it right, with the added emphasis that it's at a single-family home. The issue of it being at a single-family home raises eyebrows right away."

Nora Lovrien, a coordinator of the New Jersey Hydrogen Learning Center, a BPU-funded group of hydrogen experts, said Strizki knows more about his project than anyone else, which puts the Department of Community Affairs in a tough position.

"Nobody can just walk into it from the first day and say 'Oh yeah, it's completely safe, it will be fine,'" Lovrien said. "I think the DCA needs to play catch-up a little bit, and I think that adds to his (Strizki's) frustration. But I don't get the sense that people are actively against his project or the concept of hydrogen in general."

McConnell said Strizki's difficulty with getting permits represents another reason why the project is important. As Strizki works to get his project approved, he's paving the way for future projects, in that officials will learn more about hydrogen technology and how to regulate it, McConnell said.

Safety concerns

One reason why Strizki's project may be getting extra scrutiny is because many people associate hydrogen with the Hindenburg, a zeppelin that was destroyed by fire on May 6, 1937, while it was landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station. The airship was filled with hydrogen instead of helium because of a U.S. military embargo on helium at the time. Thirty-six people died in the accident.

Strizki passes off criticism as ignorance and said that hydrogen stored at such a low pressure, as in his plan, is far less flammable and safer than gasoline or natural gas.

Lyle Rawlings, the licensed engineer overseeing Strizki's project, said hydrogen is no more dangerous than propane, and in many ways, is safer. Rawlings also is Strizki's boss at Advanced Solar Products in East Amwell, a solar-power systems installer.

Rawlings points out that Strizki's system will have additional safeguards installed, such as a hydrogen detector, that propane systems do not.

Kurt Hoffman, East Amwell's mayor, said he is very supportive of Strizki's project, which the Township Committee approved last year.

The future

Davidson said Strizki is very close to getting his long-sought building permit.

"He's getting near the end of this process with a couple i's to dot and couple t's to cross," Davidson said.

Patrick Serfass, director of the National Hydrogen Association, in Washington, D.C., predicts that use of hydrogen-powered products will accelerate in 10 to 20 years. American companies are developing technology such as hydrogen-powered cell phone towers and portable devices for the military that can be recharged on the battlefield, he said.

Some hydrogen experts envision the eventual rise of a "hydrogen economy" in which almost all of this country's power needs will be met by hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells. But Lovrien warns it might not happen anytime soon.

"Twenty years ago, people were promising the hydrogen economy would exist 20 years from that date," she said. "I feel like people are saying the same thing today. That's not to say it will never happen, but I think the cost reductions that will make it possible for people to buy a fuel cell vehicle or install a fuel cell in their home have not happened to the extent that people predicted."

McConnell agrees that the future of hydrogen energy in the United States is uncertain. He said that 20 years ago, the United States was the world leader in solar energy technology, but has since been bypassed by Germany and Japan. The same could happen with hydrogen technology.

Strizki, however, is not one to sit and wait for other people to slowly come around to his way of thinking.

"This is not a hobby, this is my goal in life," he said. "If I'm going to leave something behind for the next generation, it's going to be renewable energy."