Hydrogen and the electricity sector

Martin Wietschel, Clemens Cremer and Michael Ball 

1 Hydrogen from intermittent renewable-energy sources 

The Hydrogen Economy Opportunities and Challenges, ed. Michael Ball and Martin Wietschel. Published by Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University Press 2009. 

Closely linked to this discussion is the hydrogen corridor question, where hydrogen produced from renewable energies is transported over long distances and country borders. Owing to a lot of specific questions, this issue is dealt with in a stand-alone chapter (see Chapter 17). 

2 Self-sufficient energy systems using hydrogen 

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System interactions between the introduction of a hydrogen energy economy and the electricity sector have to be covered. 

Interactions between hydrogen production and the electricity sector ... 

The most important shift is from the historical automotive sector to the new hydrogen-vehicle technology sectors. This conglomerate consists mainly of fabricated metals, the electrical and the machinery plastic sector and the chemical sector. 

When the supply to the electricity and transportation sectors is jointly taken into consideration, one is led to conclude that the energy supply diversity is best served by allowing green electricity to maximally penetrate the electricity sector and simultaneously swing the deployment of NG and coal to instead serve the transportation sector. (Note that there may well be synergies between hydrogen fuel production and clean power production. These will be briefly touched upon in Section 15.6 for coal below.) The extent to which one thereby accommodates the objective of C02 emissions reduction depends on the mode of hydrogen production and distribution, and the extent to which it enables carbon capture and sequestration. To a discussion thereof we now turn. 

Transportation systems, today based on petroleum fuels, are the lifeblood of the modern world. The status quo however will not last for more than a few years. A permanent solution is to form a stable, environmentally friendly transportation sector based on renewable sources of hydrogen and/or electricity. 

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