Germany eyes new offshore wind farms dedicated to green hydrogen production
For a lot of countries in the world, discussion of a hydrogen economy at any scale seems to be a bit of a hard sell. Barring sources like steam methane reformation from landfill-reclaimed methane, it&#x27;s stuck between not being nearly as portable due to hydrogen embrittlement of storage container materials and ease of leak because of the small molecular size as traditional fossil fuels (albeit less C02 intensive), but a fair bit less efficient overall than just directly using the electricity.<p>That said, Germany&#x27;s somewhat unique situation with regard to limited natural capacity for renewable energy means that that, in an argument for any degree of national energy independence, hydrogen could make sense if they can maintain some control the means of production and export.<p>The mention of using hydrogen in heavy industry is also interesting, and aligns with what I think of as a realistic stance. I used to work in the R&amp;D section of a hydrogen fuel cell OEM, and one of the primary applications of hydrogen vs. batteries is in exactly the area stated: things that need quite a bit of consistent power generation, like buses or cranes or forklifts. Areas where recharge rate and up-time are really important, since available voltage doesn&#x27;t drop with remaining energy capacity (you have the some available voltage until you stop supplying hydrogen to a fuel cell) and tanks can be refilled or swapped out more quickly than batteries.<p>I think it&#x27;s also worth noting, that at least as far as I know, the tech for that sort of thing isn&#x27;t years and years away on the energy-conversion side. The manufacturing capacity isn&#x27;t exactly at scale yet, but because of the work put in by giants like Toyota and for specialty industries like refrigerated warehouses, I&#x27;d put the maturity of the fuel cells themselves closer to a TRL-7 or -8 than a TRL-2 or -3. It at least makes expectations seem more realistic than if the ministries were to say, &quot;Well, we&#x27;ll just hydrogen all the things!&quot;