Separating Hype from Hydrogen: EU's 6GW Electrolyzer Plan
My unpopular opinion is that H2 is an overall very poor solution to our current problems. It replies poorly to the electricity storage problem, because the production chain efficiency is really low, as low as 15-20% : electrolysis has a ~45% efficiency, then compressing the H2 to 700 bars consumes 30% of the stored energy, then you must add distribution and transport (and mostly can&#x27;t use the huge, existing gas transportation infrastructure). While batteries have an efficiency over 90%, ditto (already existing) HT network.<p>Also H2 isn&#x27;t great as a dense power storage for vehicles either; the H2 plane is but a pipe dream, because it requires entirely new ways to store energy aboard, therefore probably requires entirely new planes with new architectures (like flying wings), huge new airports infrastructures...<p>All in all, methane would be a saner, simpler target : you can create methane from water, CO2 and electricity; we already have all the infrastructure to transport, store and distribute methane; and using methane in vehicles of any kind is a no-brainer and requires no breakthrough or radical change.<p>I don&#x27;t believe a word of all the H2 hype.