This is very much an area of active research. See: https://soundcloud.com/energylive/podcast-energy-live-evoenergy-hydrogen https://soundcloud.com/energylive/po

This is very much an area of active research. See: https://soundcloud.com/energylive/podcast-energy-live-evoenergy-hydrogen https://soundcloud.com/energylive/podcast-energy-live-evoene... for a lab in Australia. The main use of hydrogen is longer term storage than you are suggesting. For example, in cold climates generating energy from solar in summer and using it for heating in winter. The other way it could be useful is for long distance transportation and export. For generating electricity during the day and using it at night, it is better to use batteries. Converting energy to hydrogen is inefficient. Following that up by burning it to make steam to push a turbine to get electricity is very inefficient. However, batteries are heavy and expensive, so you probably don't want to ship them around or use them for bulk long term storage. Big tanks of hydrogen should be much cheaper, despite the energy losses. This equation will get better as more renewable generation is added to electrical grids, pushing down the cost for energy, but also increasing the need for load balancing. If using the hydrogen for heating, you can bypass some of the extra inefficiency by burning it directly for heat. It may even be possible to transport it using existing (methane) gas pipes and combust it in something similar to existing gas boilers. Again, an area of ongoing research.