Setting the commercial struggle aside, we have two ways for storing energy writes John Matthews in the Conversation. He is Professor Emeritus at Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, and so an authoritative source. The Prof concludes we will need both hydrogen and batteries for storing power in our greener future. And we should stop squabbling on behalf of one or the other
Separating the Benefits of Hydrogen and Batteries
Batteries are far from being yesterday’s technology. That’s because they are a proven solution for storing electricity for future use. Sure, there are debates raging over the smartest way to make the electricity. And we need a huge number of them to match the power of a single fossil generating unit.
Hydrogen storage is more complex by comparison. But John Matthews visualizes it as giant solar arrays powering electrolysis to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. However, this time we would not plug in a battery to release the energy. We would recombine oxygen and hydrogen atoms in fuel cells instead.
Now this is where the debate over hydrogen and batteries becomes really interesting. Batteries are unsuitable for powering steel and cement manufacturing in terms of current capacity. Whereas fuel cells have not yet reached a stage in their evolution that makes them suitable for universal electric cars.
Conclusion: The Short Answer Is We Need Both
Those more on the side of batteries, question the point of generating renewable energy to make hydrogen. And then needing more of energy to make electricity for renewable cars. Why not simply store it in a battery instead, they ask.
But John Matthews challenges this one-size-fits-all approach. Batteries are passive, he points out. They cannot replace oil, coal, and gas generation. But hydrogen holds the promise of eliminating these entirely. And make green steel, green cement, green glass, green plastics and even green fertilizer instead.
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