Hydrogen will make oil companies obsolete and let
people generate all their own energy
Power for everyone
Jeremy Rifkin
Tuesday September 17, 2002
The Guardian
More than a year after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Centre and the Pentagon, the world is a more dangerous place
than ever. And at the heart of the collective fear that continues to
grip the human race is the struggle to control OIL, the critical
resource without which our global economy and modern society
would cease to exist.
Experts had been saying that we had another 40 or so years of
cheap available crude oil. Now, however, some leading
petroleum geologists are suggesting that global oil production
could peak and begin a steep decline as early as the end of this
decade, sending oil prices through the roof.
While the fossil-fuel era is entering its sunset years, a new
energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake
civilisation along radical lines. Hydrogen is the most basic and
ubiquitous element in the universe. It is the stuff of the stars and
of our sun and, when properly harnessed, it is the "forever fuel".
It never runs out and produces no harmful carbon dioxide
emissions when burned: the only byproducts are heat and pure
water. We are at the dawn of a new economy, powered by
hydrogen, that will fundamentally change the nature of our
market and our political and social institutions, just as coal and
steam power did at the beginning of the industrial age.
Hydrogen is found in water, fossil fuels and all living things, yet it
is rarely free floating and so has to be extracted from natural
sources. Nearly half the hydrogen produced in the world is
derived from natural gas through a steam reforming process.
This has proved the cheapest way to produce commercial
hydrogen, but it is not ideal.
Natural gas emits carbon dioxide in
the conversion process. Moreover, global production of natural
gas is likely to peak between 2020 and 2030, creating a second
energy crisis on the heels of the oil crisis.
There is, however, another way to produce hydrogen without
using fossil fuels. Renewable sources of energy - wind,
photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal and biomass - can be
harnessed to produce electricity which is then used, in a
process called electrolysis, to split water into hydrogen and
oxygen. The hydrogen is stored in a fuel cell and used to
generate electricity for power, heat and light. People often ask
why electricity must be generated twice, first for the process of
electrolysis and then again to produce power, heat and light by
way of a fuel cell. The reason is that it doesn't store. If the sun
isn't shining, the wind blowing, or the water flowing, electricity
cannot be generated and economic activity grinds to a halt.
Hydrogen is a way to store renewable sources of energy to
ensure a continuous supply of power.
The real question is one of cost. Wind, hydro and biomass are
already cost-competitive in many parts of the world and can be
used to generate electricity for the electrolysis process.
Photovoltaic and geothermal costs, however, will need to drop
considerably to make the process competitive with the natural
gas process.
Commercial fuel cells powered by hydrogen are being introduced
into the market for home, office and industrial use.
Manufacturers have spent more than $2bn developing hydrogen
cars, buses and trucks, and the first mass-produced vehicles
are expected to be on the road in just a few years.
The hydrogen economy makes possible a vast redistribution of
power. Today's centralised, top-down flow of energy, controlled
by global oil companies and utilities, becomes obsolete. In the
new era, everybody could become the producer, as well as the
consumer, of their own energy - so called "distributed
generation". When millions of end-users connect their fuel cells
into local, regional, and national hydrogen energy webs, using
the same design principles and smart technologies that
madepossible the world wide web, they can begin to share
energy, creating a new decentralised form of energy use.
In the hydrogen economy, even the car is a "power station on
wheels" with a generating capacity of 20 kilowatts. It can be
plugged in, when parked, to the home, office or the main
interactive electricity network to provide premium electricity back
to the grid.
Millions of local operators, generating electricity from fuel cells
on site, can produce more power more cheaply than giant power
plants. When the end users also become the producers of their
energy, existing power plants will become "virtual power plants"
that manufacture and market fuel cells, bundle energy services
and coordinate the flow of energy over the existing power grids.
Hydrogen has the potential to end the world's reliance on
imported oil. It will dramatically cut down on carbon dioxide
emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming. And
because hydrogen is so plentiful, every human being could be
"empowered", making it the first truly democratic energy regime
in history.
Sixty-five per cent of the human population has never made a
telephone call, and one-third has no access to electricity or any
other form of commercial energy. The disparity between the
connected and the unconnected threatens to become even more
pronounced during the next half- century when the world
population is expected to rise from the 6.2 billion to 9 billion.
Most of the increase will be in the developing world, where
poverty is concentrated.
Lack of access to energy, especially electricity, is a key factor
in perpetuating poverty, while access to energy means more
economic opportunity. In South Africa, for example, 10 to 20
new businesses are created for every 100 households electrified.
The per capita use of energy throughout the developing world is
a 15th of that enjoyed in the US. Making the shift to a hydrogen
energy regime is the only way to lift billions of people out of
poverty. Narrowing the gap between the haves and have-nots
means narrowing the gap between the connected and the
unconnected.
As the price of fuel cells and accompanying appliances
continues to plummet with new innovations and economies of
scale, they will become far more broadly available, just as was
the case with transistor radios, computers and cellular phones.
National governments and world lending institutions need to be
lobbied to help provide financial and logistical support to create a
hydrogen energy infrastructure. The goal ought to be to provide
stationary fuel cells for every neighbourhood and village in the
developing world.
The fossil-fuel era brought with it a highly centralised energy
infrastructure, and an accompanying economic infrastructure,
that favoured the few over the many. Now, on the cusp of the
hydrogen age, it is possible to establish the conditions for a
truly equitable sharing of the Earth's bounty. This is the essence
of the politics of reglobalisation from the bottom up.
The hydrogen economy is within sight. How fast we get there
will depend on how committed we are to weaning ourselves off of
oil and the other fossil fuels. What are we waiting for?
Jeremy Rifkin is the author of The Hydrogen Economy: The
Creation of the World Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution
of Power on Earth. He is also the president of the Foundation on
Economic Trends in Washington
comment@guardian.co.uk
Special report
Renewable energy
The issue explained
14.12.2001: Renewable energy
Useful links
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace
British Wind Energy Association
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