A key climate researcher published an op-ed late last month declaring that hydrogen-powered cars are a bad idea and a terrible way to solve the climate crisis.
Anthony Patt is a professor in the department of environmental systems science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He wrote for the institute that fossil fuels used in heating and ground transportation should be replaced with renewable electricity, but he made it clear that hydrogen power should be used.
Patt wrote that hydrogen is one of the most serious threats to clean energy.
Patt objects to the idea that hydrogen can be created in three different ways. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions are the opposite of eco-friendly when it comes to Gray hydrogen. Natural gas is a crummy long term solution for blue hydrogen. Green hydrogen doesn't directly produce emissions, but you need electricity to make it, so in Patt's analysis, why not just use renewable electricity directly instead?
The world was old.
Why all the hype if hydrogen isn't all that eco-friendly? Patt says the EU has a hydrogen strategy that envisions hydrogen as a key energy carrier for ground transport and heating, and dedicates billions of Euros in public funding infrastructure and planning. He says the level of enthusiasm is due to the fossil fuel industry.
The European hydrogen lobby spends over 50 million dollars a year. It is the fossil energy industry's last best chance for survival.
Although batteries are currently winning in mass adoption, the issue of hydrogen and batteries is far from settled. One ally of Patt? Musk never misses an opportunity to poke fun at hydrogen vehicles.
Scientists are building a black box to record the end of civilization.
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