Hydrogen works fine, it's just got fundamental challenges due to storage pressures, and it being a tiny molecule that can escape. Due to a lack of natural free hydrogen, it's more of a battery itself than an energy source. You need to separate hydrogen from something else, which takes energy, and then you get that energy back later when you use it.
There are two ways to use hydrogen, either as a fuel source burned, or through a fuel cell which combines hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity and water.
Is it the long term answer? It takes a lot of energy to extract hydrogen, so if we had free energy it would be a decent enough "battery" to charge up. But without free surplus energy it's better to charge a traditional battery for efficiency.
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