The Hydrogen Economy — Dead In The Water
If you think the wide scale adoption of EVs is challenging, don’t even think about hydrogen as a fuel.
Moving away from fossil fuel as the basis for modern society is a difficult process for two reasons.
Firstly it’s so deeply ingrained in our way of life that it will be incredibly difficult to dislodge both in practical engineering terms but also in terms of the vast amounts of companies making enormous money from its extraction, processing, and sales.
Secondly, any mention of replacement technologies such as EVs, a possible hydrogen economy, or even the building of wind turbines, solar panels, or modern small modular nuclear reactors incites such vitriol from both sides that anyone who speaks out and pokes their head above the fossil fuel trenches is usually, and immediately, sniped down.
Unfortunately these discussions have to take place no matter how strongly people feel about the different technologies involved and no change will take place unless a forward looking, objective consensus is reached — and reached soon.
One of the most contentious issues I feel is the opening up of hydrogen as a possible fuel for vehicles (or energy storage in general) and it’s one that I believe is only really supported by those aggressively looking for funding in the field¹, those…
