this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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Solarpunk technology

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I've never jumped on the hydrogen bandwagon. I know it's technically renewable, but I feel hydrogen is a stop-gap resource.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Very good points.

Particularly that it only makes sense to generate hydrogen when electricity is in surplus - because otherwise we might as well use the electricity directly to offset use of other fuels.

I don't mind hydrogen as such a storage even if it's inefficient, but I do have 3 more reasons to dislike hydrogen:

  1. It's going to be used to whitewash fossil fuels. Look at all the colours for hydrogen. These will be mixed up because it's impossible to tell from the end product. Hell, we can't even transport polluted dirt without someone suddenly classifying it as "clean". It will be completely impossible to keep track of dirty hydrogen through the supply chain.

  2. It will keep users dependent on expensive physical fuel distribution that serves no purpose but to transport the fuel while keeping the supplier in charge of the price.

  3. Refueling of any kind is a massive waste of time. Sure, it takes longer to charge batteries, but at least the users don't have to watch it happening. It makes no sense for grid connected trains of all things.