Bullet Points: The Hydrogen Economy
THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY
Jeremy Rifkin (Foundation on Economic Trends)
- On a hydrogen economy as it pertains to Europe:
- Europe is increasingly dependent on oil and natural gas from Russia
- Russian natural gas makes up 25% and oil 30% of European supply
- How do we prepare for a transition to a post-oil era?
- Hydrogen addresses this safely, and efficiently, with the least devastation to the economy
- Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant resource in the universe
- The only by-products of hydrogen are pure H20 (water) and heat
- In every era of new energy, significant advancements occur in economic development, productivity, and in job creation
- Advancements in energy technology often accompany advancements in communications:
- Cuneiform writing and agricultural innovation in Sumeria
- Coal and the printing press
- Oil and the telegraph
- Hydrogen/distributed generation and the Internet
- Hydrogen is already entering the commercial market, but a commitment to innovation and a significant investment in infrastructure is needed
- Production is complicated and problematic in terms of input ratio
- Rifkin suggests using renewable sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal to produce electricity for further use in a process. This is known as electrolysis, or the splitting of the H20 molecule into its respective elements, enabling zero carbon (CO2) emissions
- Downsides to a hydrogen-centric economy?Hydro technology is based on one assumption: the availability of water
- Over-reliance on water as a central input in an energy infrastructure is not a sustainable solution
- Energy demand is charted to grow by almost 50% in the next 20 years. We do not yet fully understand what effects climate change will have on arctic permafrost, glaciers, and the world’s water supply
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