Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
But yeah, the kicker is the production of the Hydrogen, and the recipe for it is water + electricity gives you hydrogen and oxygen. If it can be produced with solar, wind, or hydro then it is a really good thing. But if nobody makes a Hydrogen car, then the demand for electricty keeps getting met with coal and gas firing plants.
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One thing that is often overlooked is the energy pay back period for things like solar and wind power. With the materials that solar cells are made of (and wind turbines for that matter - light carbon fibre, high quality bearings, etc) a lot of energy goes into manufacturing these components. If the manufacturing companies draw their energy from the grid, depending on their location, they could be using large amounts of coal or gas generated energy to make these parts. The efficiencies of solar and wind power components these days has improved considerably, but there is still the gap in manufacturing energy and production that must be considered. If hydrogen demand were to soar they couldn't possibly just get free energy from wind and solar energy. Turbines and solar panels would have to be manufactured, transported, and set up - consuming large amounts of energy.
Chances are, if hydrogen demand were to soar, it could be generated using coal/gas generated electricity. Really, long story short, there is no free lunch. It takes large amounts of energy to make environmentally friendly energy sources, and the major drive now is to increase the efficiency of these devices to reduce the energy payback period and make the switch to these sources more feasible.