If you are wondering what the difference will be between the official Christmas Tree outside of the State Capitol this year, versus the tree from last year (pictured) — the office of First Lady Maria Shriver has announced that this year’s white fir tree will be the, "First-Ever Energy-Efficient Christmas Tree is Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cell."

According to the release from Shriver’s office, "The 55-foot white fir tree donated by the U.S. Forest Service, Institute of Forest Genetics features more than 6,500 LED lights.  The one-kilowatt fuel cell system has been provided by the California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative and was manufactured by Altergy Systems of Folsom. Fuel cell technology was originally invented for NASA to power Gemini space craft."

For any Capitol denizens who are not already planning to run out to the tree lighting ceremony to see the fuel cell system in action (it’s in twenty minutes!), Emmy Award winning vocalist Anita Baker will also be performing…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.