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It has a similar relationship to fossil fuels as electric cars.
by exitb 5y ago
It has a similar relationship to fossil fuels as electric cars.
- bdamm 5y agoOperating electric cars on coal generation produces more miles driven for the same carbon emissions than gasoline does.
- epistasis 5y agoSort of, on some qualitative descriptions. But on the quantitative level they are quite different, enough to change the entire quality of the relationship to carbon. The cheapest source of electrical power are renewables, and for more than a decade renewables have been at cost parity. Additionally, electrical vehicles are the perfect complement to the weakness of renewables: intermittency. In contrast, the most optimistic estimates I have seen say that we are at least a decade from electrolyzed hydrogen that is as cheap as carbon-spewing current steam methane reformation. And in the interim, hydrogen boosters are pushing a nonexistent large-scale carbon capture and sequestration of steam methane reformation, something that doesn't exist on an industrial scale, with several failed projects over the past decade. So I would say that hydrogen cars today are like EVs in the mid 90s. The tech chain has a long ways to go.