I don't see hydrogen playing any role for energy storage or grid demand balancing.
Even if all the technical and engineering challenges associated with storing and transporting it safely could be addressed, I just don't see how the economics of green hydrogen is supposed to work. The round-trip energy efficiency of electrolysis-fuel cell is poor - currently about 40%.
The counter-argument is that such inefficiency doesn't matter as it can be used as a sink for excess/almost free renewables (solar or wind) but for this to work, it means leaving your capital-expensive electrolysis plant idle for half or 2/3rds of the day. Since the cost of green hydrogen production is mostly cap-ex not op-ex, this makes the proposition almost completely infeasible.
Looking at the trajectories of grid-scale battery storage and that of hydrogen technology, I don't see how anyone could bet on hydrogen.
The best hope is that we can replace the current industrial consumption of grey hydrogen with that of green but this currently needs massive subsidy as a kg of green hydrogen current costs about 5 times that of gray (admittedly I think the multiple will be less given the current high NG prices).
Even if all the technical and engineering challenges associated with storing and transporting it safely could be addressed, I just don't see how the economics of green hydrogen is supposed to work. The round-trip energy efficiency of electrolysis-fuel cell is poor - currently about 40%.
The counter-argument is that such inefficiency doesn't matter as it can be used as a sink for excess/almost free renewables (solar or wind) but for this to work, it means leaving your capital-expensive electrolysis plant idle for half or 2/3rds of the day. Since the cost of green hydrogen production is mostly cap-ex not op-ex, this makes the proposition almost completely infeasible.
Looking at the trajectories of grid-scale battery storage and that of hydrogen technology, I don't see how anyone could bet on hydrogen.
The best hope is that we can replace the current industrial consumption of grey hydrogen with that of green but this currently needs massive subsidy as a kg of green hydrogen current costs about 5 times that of gray (admittedly I think the multiple will be less given the current high NG prices).