Visitor essay by Eric Worrall
Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Charlton simply mentioned one thing about local weather change which nearly made sense, earlier than getting misplaced within the weeds of the faux inexperienced hydrogen revolution.
I hate to say it, however Barnaby has a degree on local weather
Andrew Charlton
Co-Director of the e61 Institute for Financial Analysis
October 29, 2021 — 5.00amEleven years in the past, as adviser to prime minister Kevin Rudd, I sat within the room with US president Barack Obama, Chinese language premier Wen Jiabao, German chancellor Angela Merkel and different world leaders within the dying hours of the United Nations local weather convention in Copenhagen.
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Hour after hour, hope drained out of the room. It grew to become clear that the assembly was going to fail for one easy motive: the growing international locations have been blocking the deal.
At one level a Chinese language official thumped the desk and shouted: “Wealthy international locations can’t inform people who find themselves struggling to earn sufficient to eat that they should scale back their emissions.”
A Latin American negotiator defined what was taking place. “For hundreds of years your international locations have prospered by exploiting the world’s assets,” he whispered into my ear. “How can I am going residence from this assembly and inform the slum dwellers they need to keep poor to assist clear up your mess.”
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Watching the failure in Copenhagen taught me an vital lesson about local weather change. No quantity of ethical vitality from those that are much less affected and fewer weak will inspire those that are most affected and most weak. This lesson is related for Australia’s home politics. For 10 years since Copenhagen, Australia’s local weather debate has foundered for a model of the identical motive.
Local weather activists from the interior cities promote their impeccable science, their vibrant rallies and their passionate rhetoric. However no super-majority of urbanites will ever persuade regional employees whose jobs are in danger to heed their righteous commandments.
Most of Australia’s 18 coal-fired energy stations are anticipated to shut over the subsequent 15 years, leaving about 10,000 direct workers searching for new jobs.
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So, as I watched the messy compromise this week between the Liberals and Nationals, I had a horrifying reflection. Barnaby Joyce is correct. Or no less than, the Nationals chief is correct about one factor: we have to clear up this for the areas first.
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The nice disgrace is that this was potential. The clear vitality alternative for the areas is actual if we select to capitalise on it. Research released last week confirmed that lots of the jobs within the new clear vitality industries are in hydrogen manufacturing, renewable vitality, batteries, inexperienced metals and mineral processing utilizing clear vitality are simply a number of the alternatives that may create tens of 1000’s of latest jobs in Australia’s areas.
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Andrew Charlton is a managing director at Accenture, adjunct professor at Macquarie College and co-director of the e61 Institute for financial analysis. He was an financial adviser to Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd.
I’m impressed Andrew, for a SMH contributor you virtually had it, then sadly misplaced it. Your inexperienced hydrogen “answer” to rural jobs won’t ever fly, since you forgot one other nice pillar of nation life – no person trusts the federal government.
If inexperienced hydrogen was remotely economically viable, we wouldn’t be having this dialog. Each farm would have its personal inexperienced hydrogen plant, we’d be churning out gigalitres of the stuff, like farms do within the USA once they have a frackable pure gasoline deposit on their land.
However inexperienced hydrogen shouldn’t be economically viable with out huge authorities assist, and certain by no means shall be. Inexperienced hydrogen produced by something apart from steam reforming fossil gas, or possibly within the distant future zero carbon nuclear energy, is a politically motivated chimera, which can want an indefinite interval of beneficiant authorities life assist to exist.
From tech entrepreneur and common WUWT contributor Rud Istvan, the creator of Blowing Smoke;
… Most hydrogen is made by steam reformation of natgas, which isn’t inexperienced. Lower than 5% is by way of water electrolysis, principally particular non-industrial circumstances as a result of costlier. Electrolysis is about 70% vitality environment friendly.
To be saved in significant portions, hydrogen is both extremely compressed in particular pricey carbon fiber wound epoxy cylinders (90% environment friendly due to PV/T=okay heating), or liquified, about 75% environment friendly. Must be utilized in PEM gas cells (automobiles, grid) since SOFC (Bloom Vitality) crack and have poor lifetimes, PEM are at finest 60% environment friendly and use platinum catalyst on Nafion membranes. Costly, why there aren’t many in business use anyplace regardless of years of Plugged Energy making an attempt and hyping. So 1*0.75*possibly 0.9*0.6= Perhaps 0.41 web hydrogen vitality effectivity. Identical as CCGT. However with much more capital expense for an ‘business’ that doesn’t exist but for good motive.
Now over at Judith’s some time in the past we recalculated the defective EIA LCOE for on shore wind. 2.15x CCGT. So Australia inexperienced hydrogen shall be at finest as vitality helpful as natgas at over twice the associated fee. Yup that’s what makes it ‘inexperienced’. GREEN something means costlier AND extra problematic.
Supply: WUWT Comment
Even The Guardian in one of their saner moments noticed green hydrogen numbers are shaky.
Utilizing hydrogen gas dangers locking in reliance on fossil fuels, researchers warn
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Renewable electrical energy manufacturing is increasing rapidly as prices tumble. But it surely nonetheless makes up a small proportion of all vitality used, which is generally offered by coal, oil and gasoline. Utilizing the electrical energy instantly is environment friendly, however requires funding in new forms of automobile and heating methods.
Utilizing the electrical energy to create hydrogen from water after which utilizing carbon dioxide to fabricate different fuels can produce “drop-in” replacements for fossil fuels. However the brand new research concludes this can’t work on a big sufficient scale to deal with the local weather emergency in time.
“Hydrogen-based fuels is usually a nice clear vitality service, but their prices and related dangers are additionally nice,” mentioned Falko Ueckerdt, on the Potsdam Institute for Local weather Impression Analysis (PIK) in Germany, who led the analysis.
“If we cling to combustion applied sciences and hope to feed them with hydrogen-based fuels, and these turn into too pricey and scarce, then we’ll find yourself burning additional oil and gasoline,” he mentioned. “We should always due to this fact prioritise these valuable hydrogen-based fuels for purposes for which they’re indispensable: long-distance aviation, feedstocks in chemical manufacturing and metal manufacturing.”
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Learn extra: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/06/hydrogen-fuel-risks-reliance-on-fossil-fuels
If there’s a path to economically viable inexperienced hydrogen, it’ll take a very long time to search out it. So the large authorities subsidies required to kickstart the inexperienced hydrogen revolution wouldn’t have an finish date.
A change from mining and farming to inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing would require rural individuals to desert livelihoods which don’t require authorities assist, and change to placing their whole lives within the fingers of fickle metropolis politicians, who must present a dependable long run subsidy of a whole lot of billions of {dollars} per 12 months, to fund a wholly new business which presently has no actual market.
Andrew, you expect individuals who have by no means seen something however ham fisted job killing environmental rules, an virtually full failure to spend money on very important infrastructure like roads and water reservoirs, and ongoing utter disrespect from metropolis politicians, to immediately about face and fully belief those self same politicians with their livelihoods.
Good luck promoting that plan to rural communities.
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