By Frank Lasee
Making green hydrogen suffers from the very problem it is supposed to cure. The part-time, weather dependent, unreliability of wind and solar energy. Hydrogen storage is supposed to function as a sort of battery at scale, as well as powering cars, trucks, heavy equipment, and even planes.
Wind and solar are not a full-time source of electricity needed for the tremendous amount of full-time energy required to make hydrogen. Nor do they solve the water to hydrogen problem.
The inflation causing, $1.2 trillion green give away, also known as the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, includes $9 billion for hydrogen hubs. A hydrogen hub is where our federal government will waste billions with little or nothing to show for it.
It is not possible to make full-time, on demand energy or storage from part-time wind and solar energy. Making “green” hydrogen requires massive amounts of full-time electricity. About 35% more energy than the hydrogen created contains.
Another way to say it, is a third of the energy is lost in the making. Then another third is lost in the use. Hydrogen is an expensive storage device.
In addition, when burned, hydrogen releases huge amounts of the most abundant greenhouse gas (GHG), water vapor. Which is 50 times more abundant than CO2 and is the dominant GHG.
Making green hydrogen at scale hasn’t been done yet. A lot of energy is needed to purify water, super heat it to 2,000°, electrocute it, super freeze it to near absolute zero, and compress it to three times the pressure of your average scuba tank.
Hydrogen creation needs lots of water. Perhaps contributing more GHGs than hydrogen is supposed to prevent. Gasp!
This super cold and compressed hydrogen escapes easily through metals and plastics. Hydrogen makes most metals brittle, causing leaks. If not managed correctly, large fireball explosions are likely. Accidents happen.
Remember the Hindenburg! Picture from Wikipedia
Not more than 5% hydrogen mixed with natural gas can be safely transported in today’s natural gas pipelines. Mix more than this embrittles the pipes. Because of this whole new pipeline systems, in addition to the three million miles of natural gas pipelines, will be needed.
This is expensive, not easy and will take many decades. And there will be thousands of highly volatile hydrogen filled semis on the road. That can explode! Endangering the public.
When hydrogen is shipped to another water basin, it will change weather patterns. There will be copious amounts of water released when hydrogen is used. Think of millions of hydrogen cars. There are 286 million cars on the road, just in the US.
Think of Denver, if half (350,000) of its cars are hydrogen. What will all that water vapor do to Denver’s weather and climate? Particularly in the winter? Cause more snow? More storms? More clouds?
More cloud cover means less sun. And cooler daytime temperatures and warmer nighttime temperatures. Causing lower solar panel electricity production. Maybe changing wind patterns. Causing less wind electricity production.
A large buildout of a brand new hydrogen network will cost ridiculous amounts of money and take decades to build. Think permitting hurdles, local opposition, driven by fear of explosions and ever escalating building costs.
In addition, it takes ridiculous amounts of water. Which precludes the chronically dry west from being a good location for hydrogen hubs. Bidens’s administration has already given a half a billion loan guarantee on a hub, on the edge of the desert, in Utah. Not wise.
Never mind that Utah gets less than 2% of their electricity from wind and solar. Where is the ‘renewable’ electricity for this green hydrogen hub going to come from? How much will that cost? Who will pay?
This brings us to Bidenomics, which makes everything more expensive, by making energy more expensive. Spending our tax money lavishly on unproductive wasteful spending for climate ideology. Adding to our estimated $33 trillion national debt. The interest payments on this is inflationary.
It is very costly building a replacement part-time wind and solar grid to replace our largely natural gas, coal, and nuclear-powered electricity or to run alongside it. Then spending even more on transmission wires and battery or hydrogen storage. This is one of the main reason our electric bills keep climbing.
This hurts the poor and middle class the most because they can least afford higher energy costs. And the Democrats shout social justice and claim to be for the poor.
Hydrogen is simply energy storage and has to be made at high cost. It must be made by other fuels and is costly to store and move around. And it explodes. What could go wrong?
Our government should not be subsidizing this with borrowed tax money. CO2 helps our plants grow and the Democrats are using it to help our deficit, national debt, national debt, and inflation grow.
Stop the green madness!
Frank Lasee is a former Wisconsin state senator and former member of Governor Scott Walker’s administration. The district he represented had two nuclear power plants, a biomass plant and numerous wind towers. He has experience with energy, the environment, and the climate. You can read more energy and climate information at www.truthinenergyandclimate.com which Frank leads.
To read more about green hydrogen, click here.