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> For hydrogen to be green is has to either A) be more green than storing the generating power in batteries I thought batteries had some pretty toxic elements
by hnlmorg 4y ago
> For hydrogen to be green is has to either A) be more green than storing the generating power in batteries
I thought batteries had some pretty toxic elements inside them? I don’t know much about using hydrogen as a power source so I’m interested to understand how it’s less green than batteries.
- causi 4y agoCorrect. For hydrogen to be green it has to be more green that producing and using batteries. We're already past that point. Well past it, in fact. The generation-to-tires efficiency of BeVs is 77%. For hydrogen it's 33%. Modern fuel cells have an H2 to electricity efficiency of 55%. You could make that 100% and it would still be less green than using batteries.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ncmncm 4y agoRound-trip efficiency is not actually very important when generation has zero marginal cost. You just add more panels. It matters, but other things matter more. Panels are very cheap.
- ncmncm 4y agoThere are lots of different battery chemistries. All are pretty expensive as places to store utility-scale energy. Prices are still falling. Toxicity will not be any sort of long-term problem, although in the short term lithium batteries will explode fairly often (e.g. in Teslas) releasing gas that turns into drain opener when it hits your lungs. In the future we will prefer safer forms, such as solid-state electrolytes.