Hydrogen Use Cases Have Been Disappearing For 25 Years
Since 2000, application after application of hydrogen has found it to be inefficient, ineffective and expensive compared to obvious alternatives
About 25 years ago, hydrogen was the solution of choice for climate-aware technocrats and politicians, and with good reason. At the time, there really wasn’t much choice in terms of low-carbon energy carriers. Batteries were good enough for laptops and phones, but clearly no one was going to be running transportation, heating or grid storage with them.
And besides, you could make hydrogen with electricity, something first done in 1800, and a staple of kids’ science classes as early as grade 4. Easy to make, high energy density and you didn’t even have to burn the stuff. You could use fuel cells, and again, those were really old technology with the first one constructed in 1842, and fuel cells used in Gemini spacecraft as far back as 1962. What’s not to love?
The mood was best captured by American economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin in his book The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth. What’s that? You didn’t remember the rest of the title? No one does.
