@jon @bebraw.bsky.social

The gas industry has been lobbying hard for hydrogen power because creating hydrogen via electrolysis is expensive but there’s a lot that’s a byproduct of gas extraction and so once you’ve built the infrastructure you realise that fossil fuels are a much cheaper source of supply than renewables.

This is not true of other forms of electrical power, where gas is one of the most expensive sources and is primarily used because there isn’t yet enough renewable supply.

And you just need to convince politicians that hydrogen is the future to get the investment, and hydrogen sounds exciting and futuristic, whereas power lines are century-old technology.

@jsl @jon @bebraw.bsky.social

Note that hydrogen can’t be transported in existing gas pipelines. The smaller molecules leak a lot more and you get a lot of loss (and, importantly, loss of pressure) over long runs. In the UK, the government is upgrading a load of gas pipes to be able to carry hydrogen because they listened to fossil fuel lobbyists. This is causing road damage in a time when potholes are the number one complaint from voters.

Storage is also a bit tricky. Hydrogen is incredibly corrosive and large-scale storage at the pressures needed to be useful is expensive.