I’ve been telling this story since the nineties, but the players don’t listen, because they don’t want to. Hydrogen and fuel cells are one way of driving electric cars, but far from the best. There may be some aspects that are helpful, but the downsides are way too big. But – and that is why it is being pushed – you need a monoplists’ industry behind it – that is what drives the wet dreams of leaders in tech – and which I don’t understand. Not at all.
The Hydrogen Hoax – The New Atlantis … :
“The New Energy Charlatans
The idea of hydrogen as the fuel of the future dates back to Jules Verne, and by the 1930s was a staple of science fiction. With the advent of nuclear energy after World War II, technologists expected that atomic power would provide electricity “too cheap to meter” — electricity that could be used to produce pure hydrogen at low cost, which could then be used as a fuel. By the 1970s, however, it was apparent that nuclear energy, while potentially competitive with conventional power, did not usher in a new golden age of cheap electricity. Still, researchers devoted to the idea of the “hydrogen economy” soldiered on, and with increased public concern about carbon dioxide emissions in the 1990s and about America’s dependence on foreign oil after 9/11, the pro-hydrogen crowd seized a new opportunity to make their pitch. Incredibly, the Bush administration swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker. As a result, over the past six years, billions of dollars have been dished out to national labs, auto companies, fuel-cell firms, and other beneficiaries of government largesse on hydrogen show projects that have no practical application.“