First, the Prime Directive: The release of GHGs – greenhouse gases – by humans into the atmosphere must be stopped. Burning fossil fuels for industry and transportation make up a major part of those GHGs. Fossil fuels must be replaced by fuels that add no GHGs to the atmosphere. Hydrogen is one choice.
I want to talk about the following quote from this article.
Quote: “”There was just the assumption of price of a kilogram of manufactured hydrogen would be based on dirt cheap electricity and that this was completely reasonable.””
Dirt cheap electricity *is* completely reasonable – it is already happening. During the daytime solar generation is so much that the supply of electricity exceeds the demand, and the price of wholesale electricity goes down to zero, and at times price goes negative and the generators have to pay the utilities to buy their electricity. So “dirt cheap electricity” *is* completely reasonable.
Later, Mr. Barnard says that the purchase of electricity from a utility, which is what the hydrogen generators will be doing, is “completely decoupled” from the renewables generation. This may be true now, but that doesn’t mean that the electricity is *not* dirt cheap. There may have to be another class of power purchase where the hydrogen generator purchases electricity at the current wholesale rate, even if the generators have to pay the hydrogen generator to use their electricity.
The renewables generators are not able to generate 24/7, so the amount of capacity on the grid must be increased until there is sufficient *average* capacity to provide electricity 24/7. There must be adequate storage to provide electricity at nighttime. Battery storage is already being put on the grid, but it’s only short term, less than 8 hours. One type of long term storage is hydrogen. Hydrogen generation, storage and converting to electricity with fuel cells is capable of long term if large amounts of the hydrogen is stored underground.
Hydrogen Advocates Including ICCT Don’t Understand PPAs, RECs, Wholesale & Retail Electricity
