{"id":2306,"date":"2021-11-25T11:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T10:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpethzprd.ethz.ch\/energy\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2025-03-27T16:14:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T15:14:44","slug":"h2-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/energy\/h2-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Hydrogen won’t help the energy transition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Anthony Patt<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Zum vollst\u00e4ndigen Blogpost auf Deutsch<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Anthony Patt<\/a> is Professor of Climate Policy at the Institute for Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich. Professor Patt\u2019s research intends to identify successful governmental approaches for eliminating societal greenhouse gas emissions within a short timeframe, and to adapt to climate change.His research encompasses empirical appraisal of people\u2019s beliefs, attitudes, and decisions, as well as modelling the interactions of people, institutions, and technological systems. Professor Patt together with his team have published their findings in over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This opinion piece appeared first on the ETH-Zukunftsblog.<\/em><\/p>

Hydrogen as the main energy carrier would delay decarbonization, says Anthony Patt. We should directly replace fossil energy with renewable electricity wherever possible. <\/strong><\/h3>

Hydrogen for ground transportation and heating is a bad idea<\/strong><\/h1>

Ambitions to make hydrogen a key energy carrier for a climate friendly future are misguided, says Anthony Patt. Wherever possible, including ground transportation and heating, we should replace fossil fuels with the direct use of renewable electricity.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>

To save the climate, the world needs to stop using fossil fuels by mid-century. We are finally headed in the right direction. Nearly all new power-sector investment is going into renewable energy sources. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are becoming popular. Most new buildings are being built with non-fossil heating systems. The pace of change needs to accelerate, and stronger climate policies are required. Yet one of the most serious threats to all of this is currently masquerading as clean energy\u2019s friend: hydrogen.<\/p>

The wrong carrier of hope<\/strong><\/h3>

Hydrogen is an energy carrier, like electricity, not an energy source. We can produce it three ways. Grey<\/em> hydrogen, currently accounting for nearly all hydrogen used, is obtained from methane, in a process that generates substantial CO2<\/sub> and fugitive methane emissions. Blue<\/em> hydrogen is like grey, but with carbon capture and storage to reduce CO2<\/sub> emissions. Unfortunately, fugitive methane emissions and process inefficiencies lead even blue hydrogen to have higher greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> than whatever oil and natural gas it might replace.<\/p>

Green<\/em> hydrogen is made from water, using renewable electricity for electrolysis. It generates no direct emissions and is the only climate friendly option. The problem with green hydrogen is that, in most cases, using renewable energy directly would be more efficient, less expensive, and demand fewer natural resources and new infrastructure. From a systems perspective these issues are crucial.<\/p>

Competitive and reasonable<\/strong><\/h3>

Consider ground transport. Current BEVs are cost-competitive with gasoline and diesel cars and have a rapidly growing market share. They offer sufficient range to satisfy 99% of all trips<\/a>, and for the other 1%, high speed chargers provide over 400 km of range in less than 30 minutes, equivalent to breaks people need anyway. Recent work<\/a> shows that battery electric trucks, which so-far have lagged behind cars, function equally well in terms of both economics and range<\/a>, even for long distances. There have been concerns about the environmental impacts of battery production; these can and are being addressed<\/a> through circular economy<\/a> solutions.<\/p>

The core infrastructure for charging BEVs \u2013 the electricity grid \u2013 already exists. As the number of BEVs on the road rises, we will need to augment both renewable power supply and the distribution grid. But importantly, the diffusion of BEVs and needed infrastructure upgrades can happen simultaneously.<\/p>

The story is similar for heat pumps, which are the most efficient way of using renewable power to heat buildings and many industrial processes. They are cost-competitive with fossil heating systems now, and infrastructure improvements can occur simultaneously with their expanding market share.<\/p>

Inefficient, expensive, and slow<\/strong><\/h3>

\u00a0So what about hydrogen? Hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles\u2019 (FCEVs) primary advantage is that they refuel faster than BEVs can charge. This no longer matters much, as BEV range and charging speeds have increased. Their first disadvantage is that FCEVs\u2019 overall efficiency \u2013 electricity, to green hydrogen, back to electricity, to wheel \u2013 is half to a third that of BEVs<\/a>. Higher energy use makes them significantly more expensive, compared to both BEVs and gasoline or diesel. And we would need an extensive new infrastructure for hydrogen distribution and fuelling<\/a>, which unlike that for BEVs would need to be in place before<\/em> FCEVs are suitable for any mass market at all.<\/p>

\u201cDespite these problems, there is a huge amount of political enthusiasm for hydrogen.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>

In the case of heating, there are so-called \u201chydrogen-ready\u201d boilers<\/a> coming to market that can burn a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen. Pure hydrogen boilers, which is what we ultimately would need, don\u2019t yet exist. Boilers offer some short-term advantages over heat-pumps, in terms of less need to renovate some older buildings. But then there are the same disadvantages as with FCEVs. Efficiency: it would take about six times more renewable electricity to produce the needed green hydrogen, compared to using a heat pump to heat the same building. Costs: these are higher, because of the greater energy use. Infrastructure: a second parallel hydrogen delivery system would be required before pure hydrogen boilers \u2013 which is what we really need by 2050<\/a> \u2013 can begin to enter the market.<\/p>

Just as important, scaling up renewable electricity supply fast enough is probably going to be the main bottleneck in the transition away from fossil fuels. In Switzerland, for example, we currently install solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity faster than ever, and yet we will need to quickly ramp-up installation rates by an additional factor of four in order to fully electrify ground transportation and partially electrify heating by 2050<\/a>. If green hydrogen becomes prevalent, the ramp-up will have to be even faster, and the challenges much greater.<\/p>

The hydrogen hype<\/strong><\/h3>

Despite these problems, there is a huge amount of political enthusiasm for hydrogen. To be clear: there are some applications where hydrogen will help us decarbonize, notably seasonal energy storage, steel production, and as an intermediate step in producing sustainable aviation fuels (see ETH News<\/a>). But policies being discussed extend far beyond these.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Energy Week @ ETH on “Climate Neutral Switzerland 2050”<\/strong><\/h1>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The role of hydrogen is also a topic at the Energy Week @ ETH. The four-day conference revolves around the core question “Climate Neutral Switzerland 2050: What kind of energy system do we need?”. The public event will take place in hybrid format starting from 30 November 2021.<\/p>

Further information and registration<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The EU\u2019s Hydrogen Strategy<\/a>, for example, envisions making hydrogen a key energy carrier for ground transport and heating, and would dedicate billions of Euros in public funding towards R&D and infrastructure planning. The\u00a0Swiss government has no such plans vis-\u00e0-vis heating<\/a>, but cantonal governments have signalled that they see expanding infrastructure for BEVs and FCEVs <\/a>as having equal priority.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>

So why the hype?<\/strong><\/h3>

The hype appears to come from corporate lobbying in the policy process. The European hydrogen lobby spends over \u20ac50 million annually<\/a>, outperforming environmental NGOs by a factor of five in terms of meeting and providing pre-packaged strategies to overworked policy-makers. Where do their resources come from? Primarily fossil energy companies.<\/p>

\u00a0\u201cHydrogen is the oil and gas industry\u2019s last best chance for survival, and they are playing the political game accordingly. If they win, environment and society will lose.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>

And that does<\/em> make sense, because the transition to renewable energy threatens to make their entire industry obsolete. Prioritizing hydrogen will slow it all down, prolonging the use of existing assets. If hydrogen demand expands faster than the supply of renewable energy to manufacture green hydrogen, we will be forced to continue using grey or blue hydrogen, which rely on natural gas. Finally, the fossil energy industry\u2019s primary skill set lies in processing, storing, and delivering fuel to customers through pipelines and points of sale.<\/p>

Sounding the alarm<\/strong><\/h3>

I am not the only one who is worried. One of the leading global energy sector and cleantech analysts, Michael Liebreich, has suggested that the oil sector is lobbying for hydrogen \u201cbecause it wants to delay electrification.\u201d<\/a> A group of prominent British scientists have written to their government expressing concern about hydrogen development<\/a>.<\/p>

In a few limited applications, green hydrogen may help us decarbonize. But for ground transport and heating, which together account for the majority of energy consumption, hydrogen is a really bad idea. It\u2019s the fossil energy industry\u2019s last best chance for survival, and they are playing the political game accordingly.<\/p>

If they win, it will delay the transition to clean energy. Generate higher emissions in the meantime. Require more land and resource for energy production. And cost more.\u00a0 Environment and society will lose.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Cover photo by magann\/AdobeStock<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Extra references<\/p>

Recharge news:\u00a0Liebreich: \u2018Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars because it wants to delay electrification\u2019<\/a><\/p>

SRF:\u00a0Open Letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Hydrogen Strategy<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Keep up with the Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich on Twitter @eth_energy_blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>

Suggested citation: By Patt, Anthony. \u201c<\/em>Hydrogen won’t help the energy transition<\/i>\u201d, Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich, ETH Zurich, November 25, 2021,<\/em> https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/energy\/h2-or-not\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If you are part of ETH Zurich, we invite you to contribute with your findings and your opinions to make this space a dynamic and relevant outlet for energy insights and debates. Find out how you can contribute<\/a> and contact the editorial team here<\/a> to pitch an article idea!
<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To save the climate, the world needs to stop using fossil fuels by mid-century. We are finally headed in the right direction. Nearly all new power-sector investment is going into renewable energy sources. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are becoming popular. Most new buildings are being built with non-fossil heating systems. The pace of change needs to accelerate, and stronger climate policies are required. Yet one of the most serious threats to all of this is currently masquerading as clean energy\u00d4\u00c7\u00d6s friend: hydrogen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42838,"featured_media":2307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264264],"tags":[264264],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-renewable-energy","tag-renewable-energy"],"yoast_head":"\nHydrogen won't help the energy transition - Energy Blog @ ETH Zurich<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To save the climate, the world needs to stop using fossil fuels by mid-century. We are finally headed in the right direction. Nearly all new power-sector investment is going into renewable energy sources. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are becoming popular. Most new buildings are being built with non-fossil heating systems. 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