New (Flow) Battery Design Could Help Solar and Wind Energy Power the Grid

[BlueStreak]

24. In situ Hydrogen generation (talk about a political football)

Exxon, BP and Shell all want to think about big tanker trucks that will distribute hydrogen to a network of stations they control. But it really doesn't have to be that way. Fundamentally, all you need to "create" hydrogen is electricity and water. So in theory, any gas station could create their own hydrogen. Or we could do it at home.

Now, economics will be a question. Is it a better (i.e. more efficient, lower cost) solution to create hydrogen in situ to feed fuel cells or is it better to pump that same electricity into batteries?

There certainly are energy losses either way. It isn't obvious to me which one would be more efficient. I think it is clear that you can get substantially longer range TODAY with a fuel cell than with any battery of comparable space and weight.

There are numerous developments underway to improve the hydrogen generation process (compared to simple electrolysis). If any of these can scale down to service station size, that becomes a HUGE threat to the energy company, which are, after all, the most profitable corporations ever known to man.