Conjecture: anyone who writes an article on energy policy that suggests we could cut carbon emissions through investment in ‘hydrogen technology’ knows not that of which they speak. Rosemary Righter, this means you.
The Times really are letting any idiot write opinion columns these days, aren’t they…?
I just wrote 10 million words and your spam filter deleted it. Can we agree, Samizdata style, that Spammers should be executed?
Of course you can – you switch power generation from fossil fuels to renewables or nuclear (fission or fusion), and then use those to charge up hydrogen fuel cells. This necessarily cuts carbon emissions, no?
Yes, but that doesn’t sit very well with Ms Righter’s assertion that we’re investing too much in renewables and not enough in ‘hydrogen technology’.
I must say, that’s not how I read it:
‘The goal should be to make carbon-free energy economically viable, and that will require heavy investment in such technologies as solar photovoltaics, carbon sequestration and hydrogen technology. Governments need to get away from targets and penalties, and concentrate on maximising the potential of research.’
Hydrogen is one of three buzzwords she’s picked up, obviously, but her point is sound – ruining our economies with Kyoto style emissions cuts isn’t going to leave much money or appetite for expensive R&D and massive structural changes to the energy infrastructure. The only point she makes about renewables is a series of quotes from the Lords Committee report:
‘Britain’s own climate change strategy is a shambles based on “dubious” assumptions, vague, “wildly optimistic” estimates of costs — and a politically correct approach so dominated “by certain renewable technology interests” that the “big” future technologies, such as hydrogen power, are being neglected in favour of an obsession with wind power.’
Yes. Since there’s no such thing as ‘hydrogen power’, I stand by what I said. That’d be like saying ‘battery power is being neglected in favour of generating electricity with coal’.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1650731,00.html
Well this article is actually rather sensible, at least they have a breadth of comment
Yes, Jenkins is a good lad – however, that’s from the Sunday Times, which is a far superior newspaper (for some reason I haven’t quite been able to work out).
I’d work better with a six-day weekend.
Perhaps this means the fusing of hydrogen atoms together into helium?
I’m all for greater investment in the hydrogen economy. Make me a very rich man it would if we finally got solid oxide fuel cells going.
Yes, quite, I’m all in favour of government spending if it makes me rich, it’s the other 59,999,999 I don’t want to have the tax money.
And yes, the technologies to makea hydrogen/fuel cell economy work are already out there. Just engineering now, no theoretical problems left.