this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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Unless the energy is taken from renewable sources ๐ค
That would be nice, if it actually happened ๐ฅฒ
They aren't using dirty energy to do electrolysis, they're steam reforming methane. It isn't possible to do renewably.
Methane can be produced renewably from bio-waste. H2 production by steam reforming lends itself well to CCS, and thus to being carbon neutral, even when the methane comes from non-renewable sources.
There's a better way to word the argument: it isn't possible to do hydrogen in renewable ways economically.
Electrolysis is easy enough to do at home if you like. Doing it at mass scale to fuel cars and airplanes is another matter.
The demand might increase in the future though. And as demand rises before supply does, then prices go up and there can be an incentive to roll out hydrogen infrastructure more. Positive feedback loop.
See the following for examples of how demand may be increasing: https://www.powermag.com/aces-deltas-hydrogen-electrolyzers-arrive-in-big-boost-for-hubs-progress/
https://www.powermag.com/u-s-power-heavyweights-unveil-hydrogen-power-to-power-demonstration/
https://www.powermag.com/pioneering-hydrogen-powered-gas-peaking-inside-duke-energys-debary-project/
https://www.powermag.com/siemens-led-group-completes-test-of-100-renewable-hydrogen-in-gas-turbine/
https://www.powermag.com/constellation-planning-significant-nuclear-powered-hydrogen-facility-at-lasalle/
Apologies for these all being from the same source, but I find that PowerMag covers a lot of good news in the power/energy space.
What? It is absolutely possible to make hydrogen with renewable energy sources?
Read it again, slowly.
Yeah, fuck the other 70% of energy from renewables you lose when converting to hydrogen
At the moment it's either that or manufacturing huge batteries.
No. You can manufacture lots of small batteries too. And invest in different battery technologies.
Why is it either/or? That feels like a purposeful false equivalence.
How else do you propose storing energy?
Smaller batteries for load shaving. Smaller batteries for home and businesses to self store. Hydro. Gravity. Thermal.
And that's just looking at the most basic swap out. The whole point of the energy transition is to also make everything better. Continent wide energy grids need to happen ie. Wind in Norway, solar in Morocco and a grid between etc. local generation by solar or wind also has a huge part to play. Geothermal is getting much better with lower temperature or harder to reach heat sources too, see Eden Project in Cornwall.
I don't want to come too aggressively at you here but I see this kind of "attitude" a lot in these conversations and it's always struck me as very insincere.
If you haven't already have a watch of the Everything Electric videos on YouTube for good views on how wide this whole thing is going to have to be.
The original post refers to a Tweet made by BP. They supply cars. Good luck putting thermal or gravity energy storing in cars.
They supply energy as they claim. Oil, diesel and petrol to name a few. They all have uses outside of moving cars, not sure if you know that.
If we're sticking to what OP said then You're still wrong about huge batteries as they only need to be sized for the role of the vehicle and very very very few need to do 300 miles in one go but I won't bother continuing because I don't think you're open to discuss but more of a bad faith actor.
Yea, that's the issue. BP is not