Catalyst CooperativeWell, if BP is against it, you know it's got to be good!
Mark@catalystcoop Yeah, what’s BP’s definition of “clean hydrogen?” Reformed fossil fuel with massive carbon footprint and a prayer that someday they’ll sequester co2 at scale? No thanks.
andrewgohn@MarkBrigham @catalystcoop no but seriously I’m w BP on this one. Grid power + RECs is the way to power an electrolyzer. Directly powering from an RE generator is prohibitively inefficient, since the electrolyzer will be unused whenever that asset isn’t generating. That would pointlessly triple the cost of any H2 from it.
@andrewgohn @catalystcoop what is their definition of “clean hydrogen?”
@MarkBrigham @catalystcoop I mean based on this ad, it looks like they are pushing to electrolyze H2 out of water using renewable electricity. The most efficient way to do that is to use grid power with regional RECs and that seems to be their point.
@andrewgohn @catalystcoop Thanks.
RECs?
I’m always leery of BP’s green claims (or any of the #OilyBoys claims for that matter). They toss a few quid at green tech, PR the bejeesus out of it, all while they increase fossil fuel development and greenhouse gas emissions.
They may have made a good point in this ad, but mind the gap between their greenwashing and actual progress toward zero emissions.
@andrewgohn @MarkBrigham (RECs = Renewable Energy Certificates)
@chrisnelder's @TransitionShow had a great long interview with Eric Gimon picking this policy apart, and why additionality, regionality, and time matching are all necessary, and why RECs currently can't deliver:
https://xenetwork.org/ets/episodes/episode-192-when-is-hydrogen-clean/
Eric's written comments to Treasury are also great: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/IRS-2022-0029-0145
@andrewgohn @MarkBrigham @chrisnelder @TransitionShow
The $3/kg subsidy is also *extremely* rich -- rich enough that even self-contained wind+solar+electrolyzer projects that do not connect to the grid are currently expected to be profitable. There's at least one such project already planned in Texas!
There are looser schemes that would definitely provide additionality, regionality, and time-matching, and would be still more profitable with a grid-tie.
@andrewgohn @MarkBrigham @chrisnelder @TransitionShow
So BP's argument that these attributes -- which are absolutely necessary in the long run to produce carbon-free hydrogen -- shouldn't be required right now isn't really about whether green hydrogen is profitable enough to take off and start scaling up, it's about making it even more profitable, without pushing the energy system to learn everything it needs to. Because BP has no interest in reducing emissions.
Volts also has an episode on the topic which isn't paywalled, but it's not as rich as the conversation with Eric:
https://www.volts.wtf/p/were-about-to-give-billions-of-dollars#details
We're about to give billions of dollars to clean hydrogen. How should we define it?
The Inflation Reduction Act contains tens of billions of dollars of subsidies meant to accelerate the growth of clean hydrogen. But what exactly counts as clean hydrogen? And who will be able to claim these subsidies? It's more complicated than it looks -- I dive into it with Rachel Fakhry of NRDC.
@andrewgohn @TransitionShow @chrisnelder @catalystcoop seems like a correct interpretation. Throw a few shekels at green hydrogen; milk the subsidies; and bring massive amounts of grey hydrogen (fossil fuel in disguise) to market. That’s how the #OilyBoys roll.