04 September 2008
Hydrogen Schmydrogen
Has anyone else noticed a stark lack, at either party's convention, of any mention of hydrogen power? Palin even mentioned solar power and "clean coal" but didn't name hydrogen or nuclear as viable alternatives, as far as I remember. And Obama mentioned nuclear, but not hydrogen specifically. Is hydrogen no longer favored in the political arena? Maybe I'm the only one who noticed...or did I just miss the speeches talking about hydrogen? Maybe it was implied in the mention of other process to produce hydrogen, and I'm just ignorant to that. I'm too lazy to go research it at length, so maybe some of you can clarify for me. :-)
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The problem with hydrogen is they haven't yet come up with a cost effective (and safe!) way to get the stuff in the first place. At least that's my understanding from what my hubby told me. Anyway, there are a lot of problems before hydrogen energy is a viable options. I trust my hubby, as this type of stuff (energy systems etc.) will soon be his career.
Isn't solar power terribly inefficient?
Palin, Giuliani and Romney all did mention nuclear. Palin certainly said the most about energy: natural gas, nuclear power, clean coal and "moving forward" with other resources.
Overall though, it was about nuclear power and offshore drilling. Less about the environment and more about independence from foreign oil.
It doesn't surprise me that hydrogen was not mentioned because it's more expensive, less efficient and less "promising" than other resources. (http://www.efcf.com/reports/E21.pdf) As far as I understand, electric looks more promising.
Naturally, alternative energy was mentioned more frequently at the DNC and in context of energy independence AND global warming. Less about drilling and nuclear power and more about solar, wind and geothermal.
Palin said, "Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines... build more nuclear plants... create jobs with clean coal... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources."
So she did mention nuclear, which I missed at the time. And she mentioned the other "environmentally friendly" alternatives.
I remember being pleasantly surprised when I heard Obama emphasize nuclear energy, among other comments like keeping American jobs:
"As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest $150bn over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced."
He and Palin sound a lot alike (in their speeches, at least) in that regard.
I'm still waiting for the legalization of riding horses on city streets myself.
The main problem with hydrogen is that you have to have a way to make it. Quite literally, the only place that we know of where you can just pull it out of the ground is on the moon. The easiest way to get pure hydrogen is by extracting it from water through electrolysis. This requires electricity. The electricity has to come from somewhere else. It would be far more efficient to just use electricity.
I don't know the specifics of what is going on at my dad's workplace, but they have been developing hydrogen fuel cells for several years now. I am not sure if they are out on the market yet, but the company is supposedly going public within the next year or two, so I am pretty sure that the ability is there to use it in place of electricity.
If I remember conversations about the things going on at his work (he doesn't do it, but the guys he supervises do) are to develop fuel cells for houses that are too far in the country/apart from society to run power lines out to their house and the fuel cells would allow them to power their house for quite a while.
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