ON THE POLITICS OF HYDROGEN ECONOMY, POWER-TO-X, AND DECARBONIZATION

Since the 1970s, hydrogen has been considered an essential element of a future energy economy.Recently, within the framework of decarbonization in the energy sector, many countries havedeveloped national plans to address the establishment of a hydrogen-based economy in the nearfuture. To achieve complete decarbonization, electric power must be generated exclusively fromrenewable sources. Power-to-X (PtX) technologies refer to hydrogen generation from electricity and itssubsequent conversion to another energy carrier for storage or transportation. Thus, the challengesassociated with establishing a green hydrogen-based economy include those associated withexpanding renewable energies and the production, transportation, and storage of the energy carriersdenoted by X in the PtX.A prerequisite for decarbonization enabled by the hydrogen economy is the availability of largequantities of excess “green” electricity. In the coming decades, we will be far from reaching this goal.Thus, almost all current efforts toward establishing a hydrogen economy tend to increaseCO2 emissions globally instead of decreasing them because the incremental electricity generationrequired for hydrogen production is accomplished using fossil fuels.As long as fossil fuels are used on a large scale to cover the demand for electricity in a country, theimplementation of a hydrogen economy will lead to a significant increase in the inefficiencies, costs,and CO2 emissions in the energy sector of the same country compared to other options that either areor could easily become available. As long as the conditions for generating large additional amounts ofgreen electricity are not met, a hydrogen economy is counterproductive to the decarbonization efforts.Therefore, national energy policies should focus in the coming years on the expansion of the use ofrenewable energy sources, as well as on the expansion of the electric grids and of theinterconnections among countries, which are very important for achieving the decarbonization goalsfaster and in a sustainable way. The use of hydrogen and PtX technologies should not be promotednow with taxpayers money (to maximize decarbonization per unit of invested capital), but in lateryears, when the share of green electricity in a country reaches very high levels. Finally policymakers,scientists and engineeres should (a) expand and reconsider the existing measures for reducingCO2 emissions in the energy sector, (b) objectively inform the public about the available options, and(c) stop misleading the public about the role of hydrogen in decarbonization in the near future.