Extract from Lords debate on the Green Economy - Mar 12
Friday, 13 March 2020 07:42
Lord Howell of Guildford (Con):...Secondly, when it comes to
hydrogen itself, there still seems to be deep confusion. Hydrogen
is not so much an energy source as a vector in energy
transformation. It is enormously plentiful and can be added
into our entire gas grid at up to 40% dilution without any change
either to the piping of our national gas grid, which is very
extensive, or to actual gas boilers or cookers, with huge savings
in conventional hydrocarbon burning. It can also be used...Request free trial
(Con):...Secondly,
when it comes to hydrogen itself, there still seems to be deep
confusion. Hydrogen is not so much an energy source as a vector in
energy transformation. It is enormously plentiful and can be
added into our entire gas grid at up to 40% dilution without any
change either to the piping of our national gas grid, which is very
extensive, or to actual gas boilers or cookers, with huge savings
in conventional hydrocarbon burning. It can also be used directly
as a longer-range transport fuel, and is probably superior to
dragging around heavy batteries in electric vehicles. I am very
doubtful whether the battery technology required to make the EV
revolution happen is not going to come to a dead end. For one
thing, hydrogen can be loaded like petrol and just as fast. It is
no wonder that some police forces—South Wales
Police among them—have decided to go over to hydrogen when
they have to respond in seconds to emergencies instead of using
battery-powered vehicles for which they might have to wait half an
hour to be filled up and ready to go on the job. Besides which, the
lithium, cobalt, copper and rare earths required in batteries all
come from monopoly sources, such as China, Argentina, Bolivia,
Chile, Congo, Indonesia and Serbia—potentially a new sort of OPEC
that could be a good deal more threatening and less friendly than
the present one that we have had to work with for the past 40
years...
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