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https://theconversation.com/new-zealand-is-touting-a-green-hydrogen-economy-but-it-will-face-big-environmental-and-cultural-hurdles-187521>
"In its plan to retool the economy, the New Zealand government highlighted
green hydrogen as a game-changing fuel. It can indeed be used to make
climate-friendly fertilisers and steel or to power some modes of transport that
aren’t suited to batteries.
But to provide a buffer against the volatility of overseas markets, Aotearoa
would need to be as energy independent as possible. Ideally, this would mean
consuming only green hydrogen produced here, using abundant renewable hydro,
wind and solar resources.
A hydrogen economy is good in theory, but to make the switch at the scale of
Aotearoa’s climate ambitions would require about 150 petajoules of hydrogen
each year, according to one estimate. That’s about a quarter of our current
energy use.
Hydrogen is produced in a process known as hydrolysis – the splitting of water
into hydrogen and oxygen gas, using electricity. To produce a quarter of
Aotearoa’s energy consumption, hydrolysis would consume an enormous amount of
water, about 13 million tonnes each year, the equivalent of a month’s worth of
Auckland’s water demand.
This raises both cultural and technical issues, which we must address before
embarking on a transition to hydrogen as a green fuel."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
