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Comment on Hydrogen's Big Year Continues With New California H2 Transit Project

AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Dont most people know that? I thought the promise is that you could establish a hydrogen infrastructure and it would get greener over time - similar to EV’s which get greener over time as power generation includes more renewables.

Not that I’m that naive but I thought that was the claim. Realistically it looks like corporate welfare to let fossil fuel companies keep a stranglehold on energy. One of the most satisfying parts of owning an EV is thinking about all that industry that no longer needs to exist. It’s not just the drilling and refining and shipping and military support for oppressive regimes worldwide, but also huge amounts of polluting and profiteering infrastructure to store and distribute gasoline to every street corner. It can all go

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acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
most people do not know that.

thought the promise is that you could establish a hydrogen infrastructure and it would get greener over time - similar to EV’s which get greener over time as power generation includes more renewables.

why would we use renewables to produce hydrogen when we could just use that renewable energy as it is? That’s just adding extra steps and inefficiency for very little benefit, if any.

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- Attacker94@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  why should we use renewables to produce hydrogen (not to mention develop an entirely new hydrogen infrastructure) when we could just use that renewable energy as it is? That’s just adding extra steps and inefficiency for very little benefit, if any.
  
  Because hydrogen isn’t trying to replace the source of energy, it is trying to replace the storage of it, at present batteries are not nearly good enough for the EV only transportation boom, but hydrogen works and only really needs to deal with the volatility issue
  
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  - phutatorius@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    only really needs to deal with the volatility issue
    
    H2 is the smallest molecule there is, and among the worst to contain. It’s also quite reactive. And the production of H2 for storage is not wonderfully efficient, nor is the whole lifecycle from production to consumption.
    
    The only real reason for hydrogen is to repurpose rather than scrapping the existing gasoline supply chain. That benefits nobody but the fossil-fuel companies. And that’s why it’s being endlessly hyped, despite being a profoundly suboptimal solution.
    
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  - acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    it’s not just volatility that’s an issue. Entirely new infrastructure needs to be built. Even setting aside volatility, Hydrogen is extremely difficult to contain because it’s such a small molecule. And it’s also corrosive. These are not trivial challenges at all.
    
    It’s true that batteries present their own challenges but we are making much more progress in battery tech than we are with hydrogen.
    
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