US ‘Hydrogen Hub’ Plan May Push Clean Hydrogen to the Wrong Users
One of the most common analogies for clean hydrogen is that it’s like a Swiss Army knife for decarbonization — a handy tool that can kick dirty fossil fuel out of a number of different industries.
But just because a tool can be used doesn’t mean it should be used — especially if it’s a “second- or third-best clean energy solution” that displaces much better options at hand.
That’s how Robin Gaster, a senior fellow at Washington, D.C. think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, described the limits of clean hydrogen in a January report.
“The answer is finding actual use cases where hydrogen is the primary solution, not the third-best solution,” Gaster, who is also the president of data and analysis consultancy Incumetrics, told Canary Media. “I went through pretty much everything I could find that seemed like at least a half-baked case to show that we could get to significant hydrogen demand. And I struggled.”
Gaster isn’t alone. A growing number of industry analysts are questioning whether hydrogen is viable for the applications where it’s often cited as a decarbonization solution, from long-haul trucking to replacing fossil gas in pipelines for heating buildings and generating power...
