When you imagine a clean energy future, what does it look like? For most people, the idea conjures images of spinning fields of wind turbines and massive solar farms. But while wind and solar are excellent and increasingly efficient and affordable forms of clean energy production, they have their limitations.
And these technologies are advancing all the time, especially as cash begins to flow into the energy storage sector as it’s become clear that it will be a significant mainstay of our greening economy.
But even with reliable and cost-effective energy storage, wind and solar can’t completely replace the capabilities and advantages of burning fossil fuels.
Bringing us back full circle, hydrogen can also store energy and could be an integral part of the future energy storage industry, allowing wind and solar to be scaled up without relying on lithium-ion batteries, which rely on finite rare earth minerals and metals.
So while not all hydrogen is good for the environment, green hydrogen, which is virtually emissions-free from cradle to grave, could be a huge and invaluable part of a cleaner, greener future.
An analysis by BloombergNEF projects that this kind of cost-cutting may be achieved by 2030, but that is only the case in a scenario in which both electricity production and electrolyzer capacity are vastly increased “at a time when the world’s generators and grids already will be straining to keep up with demand from newly electrified vehicles.” As Oilprice has already reported, the U.S.
The good news is that there are already a lot of forward-thinking actors in both the private and public sectors who are leading the charge toward green hydrogen and laying the foundation to scale it up over the next decade.