Europe's Spending Billions on Green Hydrogen. It's a Risky Gamble
Europe's Spending Billions on Green Hydrogen. It's a Risky Gamble
Governments and companies want the clean fuel to play a big role in fueling the continent. If they’re wrong, the planet will be worse off than before.
To be clear: we're going to use renewable hydrogen for some things, such as fertilizer manufacturing — there isn't any other way to do them sustainably. There are applications for which it's one of the most expensive choices, such as home heating, and a whole host of industrial processes and aviation sitting in between.
I'm just not seeing the risk here..."oh no, we wasted our time on a green tech that we didn't need"
This is going to take time to learn to scale up, and even if it turns out not to be useful energy-wise, it'll still create jobs now and have alternate applications down the road
It is not a 'gamble' right now. It is just 'plain stupid' right now.
The opposite is true. There is no alternative to carbon neutrality and hydrogen will be needed in huge amounts to decarbonize certain sectors in industry and transport.
The problem are the insane amounts of story tellers that either pretend it will not work at all or that it's some magic solution so people can keep burning just another kind of gas without having to change anything. And both actually tell the same story: give up and stick with fossil fuels because it makes us rich.
There are 2 key messages in the article:
By the time hydrogen is made, stored and burned to make electricity again, there’s nearly 70% less energy than at the start — and the cost has tripled. Green hydrogen will probably only be useful towards the end of the energy transition, once primary electricity demand is being comfortably met by renewables, according to Pierre Wunsch, Belgium’s top central banker. “We’re not going to have green hydrogen in big quantities and cheap prices before that because of course we need to produce more electricity to electrify,” he said.
In most countries we are NOT at the point to able to spend excess electricity.
That’s perhaps why most green hydrogen projects only exist on paper or the websites of major gas companies like Equinor ASA, Shell Plc and Sinopec. [...] If they’re wrong, the world risks locking in decades of fossil fuel pollution and blowing past targets for cutting emissions.
Gas & oil companies do not care what you put into your cars, machines, etc. As long as you buy it from them. And if it does not work... oh well, they can continue selling Gas&oil as long as needed, damn the consequences😉
Bonus: All planned 'green hydrogen' facilities worldwide until 2035 will cover about 10% of Germany's demand: https://www.pik-potsdam.de/members/Ueckerdt/E-Fuels_Stand-und-Projektionen_PIK-Potsdam.pdf
Billions are such smol numbers in such industries.
Not doing anything or even using the cash for fossil fuel subsidies is what would have been really
riskystupid.