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Hydrogen Utopias and Sci-Fi Delusions
Rifkin and Rakhou’s techno-fantasies belong on the fiction shelf, not in serious energy policy
As someone who combines a lifelong passion for speculative fiction with rigorous expertise in energy systems and the analytical lens of an English literature student, I approach Erik Rakhou’s Touching Hydrogen Future (2022) and Jeremy Rifkin’s The Hydrogen Economy (2002) with both fascination and deep skepticism. Viewed through this dual lens — as literary speculation rather than credible roadmaps — their narratives become interesting yet fundamentally simplistic visions of a future built upon hydrogen. Analysis reveals how both authors, perhaps because their penchant for imaginative and fantastical storytelling, dramatically oversimplify the real-world complexities of technological transitions, neglecting crucial socio-economic, ethical, and geopolitical dimensions that more sophisticated science fiction handles explicitly.
Jeremy Rifkin’s The Hydrogen Economy (2002) positions hydrogen as something akin to an alchemist’s philosopher’s stone, a mythical substance that promises effortless transformation from carbon-heavy society to hydrogen-powered abundance. Rifkin presents hydrogen not merely as a useful energy vector, but as a nearly magical universal solvent that dissolves the problems of fossil…
