Hydrogen – The Saltbush Club

Blind Freddy on Green Hydrogen

By Geoff Derrick

Everyone knows “Blind Freddy”. He’s the man who sees problematic issues with extreme clarity, who identifies projects based on humbug, who calls out scams and wrong-doings, who is our quiet protector on many controversial social and business issues, and who keeps many of our radical politicians, businessmen and policy makers in check.

It is Blind Freddy who could see that “Green Hydrogen” was set to fail (“Writing on wall for green hydrogen”, Weekend Australian, 5-6 Oct), simply because making green hydrogen by passing an electric current through water is extremely expensive and energy consuming. It is Blind Freddy who sees that this process uses more energy than hydrogen can produce, and that it costs more to make this green hydrogen than its world sale price.

Operating at a loss may well be standard socialist philosophy, but it is not the way capitalism works.

And it is Blind Freddy who can see that renewables will never replace fossil fuels because they cannot do the job of powering a nation 24/7.

Battery Baloney, Hydrogen Hype and Green Fairy Tales

By Viv Forbes

How low Australia has fallen – our once-great BHP now has a “Vice President for Climate”, the number of Australian students choosing physics at high school is collapsing, and our government opposes nuclear energy while pretending we can build and operate nuclear submarines.

Our Green politicians want: “No Coal, No Gas, No Nuclear” while Our ABC, Our CSIRO and Our Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) are telling us that wind and solar energy plus a bit of standby gas, plus heaps of batteries and new power lines can power our homes, industries AND the mass electrification of our vehicle fleet. This sounds like Australia’s very own great leap backwards?

There are two troublesome Green Energy Unions – the Solar Workers down tools every night and cloudy day, and the Turbine Crews stop work if winds are too weak or too strong. And wind droughts can last for days. The reliable Coal and Gas Crews spend sunny days playing cards, but are expected to keep their turbines revving up and down to keep stable power in the lines.

Can the Government Create a Green Hydrogen Fuel Industry?

By Steve Goreham. Originally published in Washington Examiner.

World leaders promote hydrogen as a possible low-emissions fuel for transportation and industry. Nations have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to support development and supply of hydrogen. But will governments be able to create a new green hydrogen fuel industry?

When hydrogen burns, the only combustion product is water vapor. Net Zero advocates, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), propose that green hydrogen be used as fuel in place of natural gas and coal in industry and transportation. But the problems with existing hydrogen technology are many.

First it was wind, then it was solar…

First it was wind, then it was solar. Now they’ve put the two together and it’s hydrogen. They’re trying to skin us alive forever. – Professor Ian Plimer

Two weeks ago, Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced he’ll subsidise our coal-fired power plants to offset the unreliability of our already subsidised wind turbines and solar panels – a policy “worthy of a Yes Minister show or Monty Python skit” as described by the National Civic Council.

Now, Minister Taylor has knocked back an Australian nuclear energy industry in favour of hydrogen fuel because “hydrogen can do things that nuclear could never do anyway. It’s not only a source of energy, it’s a feedstock”.

Really, Angus? Continue reading “First it was wind, then it was solar…”

Hydrogen Hype and Hurdles

By Viv Forbes.

Green Hydrogen is the latest “energy” fad from the global warming warriors. It is mainly hot air.

Hydrogen will NEVER be a source of energy. Unlike coal, oil or natural gas, hydrogen rarely occurs naturally – it must be manufactured, and that process consumes far more energy than the hydrogen “fuel” can recover. And the heat content of natural gas is over three times that of hydrogen.

“Hydro-gen” means “born of water”, but the first commercial fuel containing hydrogen was born of coal. Maybe it should be called “Carbo-gen”? Continue reading “Hydrogen Hype and Hurdles”

The Hydrogen Strategy to NOWHERE

The European Commission presented its hydrogen strategy in July 2020. It is convinced that it will be possible to make ‘clean’ hydrogen a viable solution for a climate-neutral economy and to build a dynamic value chain for this resource in the EU. It is even convinced to do that over the next five years. The European Commission is convinced that “from 2025 to 2030, hydrogen needs to become an intrinsic part of our integrated energy system, with at least 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers and the production of up to 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU”. For 2030 hydrogen produced with renewable energy should be deployed across all the EU. In doing so, it follows the example of Germany, which launched its hydrogen strategy a month earlier. The Commission know that this will be a conflict with the market law and propose therefore to create a value chain by boosting the demand for hydrogen that does not exist presently; this will require a “supportive framework” i.e. an imposition to the market by policy. Continue reading “The Hydrogen Strategy to NOWHERE”

Hydrogen Hype

By Viv Forbes

Dr Finkel (Australia’s Chief Scientist) is wrong – hydrogen will never be a “hero fuel source”.

Australia has no gas wells producing hydrogen – every bit of hydrogen we use must be generated by electrolysis of water or manufactured from natural gas or coal. These processes consume energy some of which could be recovered by using the hydrogen as a fuel to power cars or generate electricity. We could use solar or wind energy to generate hydrogen, but then they cannot generate electricity for consumers, industry and the millions of electric cars our political scientist also supports. Continue reading “Hydrogen Hype”