The drawbacks are as follows. To convert hydrogen back into electricity you need to either use a gas turbine or a fuel cell.
Fuel cells are expensive, so you have capital cost problems. Additionally fuel cells have problems providing variable power output. For this reason you often couple the system with a battery.
Gas turbines running on hydrogen have some engineering challenges. In particular the gas turbine technology needs to be re-engineered because hydrogen burns differently from natural gas. Secondly NOx emissions are an issue that needs to be addressed.
Moreover, if one is to store and transport hydrogen as a gas or a liquid, the infrastructure is more challenging than with a natural gas pipeline. If one is to further convert hydrogen into a synthetic fuel, you get additional conversion losses.
Fuel cells are expensive, so you have capital cost problems. Additionally fuel cells have problems providing variable power output. For this reason you often couple the system with a battery.
Gas turbines running on hydrogen have some engineering challenges. In particular the gas turbine technology needs to be re-engineered because hydrogen burns differently from natural gas. Secondly NOx emissions are an issue that needs to be addressed.
Moreover, if one is to store and transport hydrogen as a gas or a liquid, the infrastructure is more challenging than with a natural gas pipeline. If one is to further convert hydrogen into a synthetic fuel, you get additional conversion losses.