John Lounsbury

A Smart Electricity Solution for Transportation

If you are producing electricity at times it is not being used, you will throw it away unless there are storage systems. A problem with some energy technologies (solar and wind, plus, to a lesser extent, tidal flow) is the variability in production hour to hour. If these ever become major proportions of our electrical energy production, it will only be energy storage.

What proportion of electrical energy should be produced from these sources depends on the engineering and economic factors beyond the scope of my ability to discuss (and I am serious student of economics with a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry). If there have been comments from true experts in this area on Seeking Alpha, I have not read any of them.

By the way, the economics of using hydrogen (or any other chemical storage system for energy) depends (among other factors) on the cost of the energy needed to create hydrogen from the raw material (water). If the energy is surplus and would otherwise be wasted (rather than stored) the cost of the energy is essentially zero. Of course, there are other factors, such as storage (which you mentioned), distribution outlet facilities and transportation which are part of the economic equation.

Finally, technically, hydrogen is not burned in the sense of combustion, unless you are thinking of the Hindenburg. The use proposed for hydrogen as an energy source is to use the electricity produced when it reacts with oxygen under controlled conditions to reproduce the original water. The system proposed for this is called a fuel cell. Fuel cells are similar to batteries except that they are "open systems" that keep running as long as the "fuel" is supplied. Batteries are closed systems that do not introduce additional material after they are made. To be used for energy storage, the battery must be "rechargable".

I apologize for sounding like a professor, but maybe these comments will be of use to someone.


On Nov 20 01:47 PM nakedjaybird wrote:

> jonebury - making and storing Hydrogen to then burn it is a waste
> of energy and money.

A Smart Electricity Solution for Transportation

In spite of the article and commenters making some unsubstantiated statements of fact (they should be called opinions), all are by and large making some valid points. Most important among these is the repeated theme that we need a redesigned electric grid system, including improved electrical energy storage systems (batteries, capacitor storage or chemical storage, such as hydrogen).

This entire aspect of our energy future is in such lack of focus right now. Some comprehensive engineering and economic analysis is needed to get a foundation for planning. As things stand, we are all just grasping at straws.