Maybe one day but for now it’s just green washed big oil
At present, however, just 2 per cent of the 600 billion cubic metres of hydrogen manufactured each year around the world is produced by water electrolysis, while 98 per cent is produced from natural gas, with carbon dioxide as a by-product.
More than 90 per cent of this hydrogen is used as a building block for fertilisers or is consumed within the oil, refining and wider petrochemicals industry.
The technology plans for these fuel cells aren’t “for now”. They’re for a future where we’ve hopefully already decarbonized most of the electric grid, as doing so is way more important than decarbonizing aviation. Converting fleets of airplanes to electric is a long process that will probably not be started for a while yet while there are more important carbon emission sources to tackle (aviation is only 2-3% of the emissions right now).
Sufficient storage capacity to meet overnight needs is going to be a challenge; storage to meet seasonal production variation is impossible. To make solar feasible, we need to build out sufficient generation capacity to meet our needs in winter. Winter, with, perhaps, 9-hours of mostly overcast skies and low angles over the horizon.
Imagine the output of that same system in summer: 15 hours of high-angle daylight and mostly clear skies.
The solar economy needs absurdly massive electrical loads in summer that can be readily shed over winter. We may see fleets of factory ships, loaded with electrolysis equipment, plugging into grids on whichever side of the equator is currently experiencing summer.
Emi@ani.social 5 weeks ago
Electrolysis? Ideally from excess solar or nuclear.
lemming741@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Maybe one day but for now it’s just green washed big oil
hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
The technology plans for these fuel cells aren’t “for now”. They’re for a future where we’ve hopefully already decarbonized most of the electric grid, as doing so is way more important than decarbonizing aviation. Converting fleets of airplanes to electric is a long process that will probably not be started for a while yet while there are more important carbon emission sources to tackle (aviation is only 2-3% of the emissions right now).
Blum0108@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Best case, but a lot of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels by my understanding.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 weeks ago
Sufficient storage capacity to meet overnight needs is going to be a challenge; storage to meet seasonal production variation is impossible. To make solar feasible, we need to build out sufficient generation capacity to meet our needs in winter. Winter, with, perhaps, 9-hours of mostly overcast skies and low angles over the horizon.
Imagine the output of that same system in summer: 15 hours of high-angle daylight and mostly clear skies.
The solar economy needs absurdly massive electrical loads in summer that can be readily shed over winter. We may see fleets of factory ships, loaded with electrolysis equipment, plugging into grids on whichever side of the equator is currently experiencing summer.