The last two years has seen the long-awaited hydrogen economy boom into the public conscience.
It seems every day there are multi-GW announcements from both governments and private companies for hydrogen production from renewable wind and solar at scales that are hard to fathom – even for renewable energy optimists like us. Hydrogen has been promised to allow transport of energy from the Renewable energy rich northwest of Australia, the middle east and the windy north of Canada to Europe, however, the energy and economic viability of this is still in question.
Clearly Hydrogen has a role to play in the future energy mix and in our view especially in the production of ammonia, methanol and chemical intermediates (i.e. the current markets for fossil hydrogen), however a growing body of studies indicates that using Hydrogen for home heating through the gas network and for transport is unlikely to compete with alternatives.
For the transport industry the well to wheel efficiency for hydrogen transport is between 30-40% of renewable electricity into distance travelled. While it is between 70-80% for electric vehicles using batteries. This means that hydrogen-based transport will require 2.5 times as much solar and wind vs electric cars, plus extensive infrastructure, plus electrolysers.
