Hydrogen, the renewable energy of the future

The hydrogen is the renewable green energy of the future. To think it is the European Union that started to experiment its usage on large scale. To think it is the International Agency for the Renewable Energies, that talks about it on the Outlook called “Hydrogen from Renewable Power”. Many think that this is the way to follow for a cleaner future. Let’s find out together the hydrogne, the renewable energy of the future.

What is the hydrogen?

Let’s start from the basic: what is the hydrogen? It is a chemical element of the periodic table, the lightest one and the most common in the universe. For example, the sun is composed for the 90% by the hydrogen, while the gaseous giants like Jupiter and Saturn by the 80%. It is about the 75% of the matter of the universe.

On the Earth, by the way, it isn’t such common as in the universe and for this reason it must be produced to be used.

Currently it is used in the ammonia, in the hydrogenation of the vegetal oils. It is used in the aeronautic, in the past it was used much more, in reality, to make fly the air ballons. It is used as alternative fuel and it can be even found inside the combustione batteries.

In the nature, instead, the best place to find it is the water. The H₂O is, infact, composed by two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. We can find it inside the organic matter (which means all the known life forms), in the fossil fuels and as natural gas. The methane, CH₄, is composed by four atoms of hydrogen and currently it seems to be the biggest source of it.

The Outlook made by Irena

Hydrogen from Renewable Power is the title of the Outlook made by the Irena, The International Agency for the Renewable Energies.

The world is trying to become greener, mostly, and in the effort to produce as less greenhouse gases as possible it’s trying to produce electric energy from renewable energy sources. This seems to be without any doubt the best choice.

The sale of the electric vehicle is endlessly growing. According to the Irena until the 2050 there will be a billion of electric cars around the streets.

Let’s so arrive to the Outlook launched by the Irena, “Hydrogen from Renewable Power”. According to the Irena the hydrogen should be essential for the industry and the transport. Produced from renewable powers it can be the solution when the electric is still unpossible, like the aviation or the refining, or some industrial practicals.

Therefore, the hydrogen can be carried easier compared with many other energies produced from renewable sources. It can be produced and easily carried on the mainland.

It is surely favourable even under the point of view of the infrastructures. Infact, it can use the one that already exist!

According to the Irena there isn’t any doubt, this will be the energy of the future.

The green challenge of the European Union passes even through the hydrogen

The European Union wants to set at zero the C0₂ emissions until the 2050 and the hydrogen is in the middle of this project.

One of the main problems that the European Union is trying to solve, about the renewable energies, is the storage of the renewable energy (wind, solar). There aren’t problems if the energy must remain for short times, like from the day to the night (like for the solar energy for example). For it they used last generation batteries.

The problem arises for the long term storage, for example from one season to another. In this case the batteries can’t help.

The cleanest solution to which they thought is to transform the extra energy in hydrogen. Infact, this can be stored easier into tanks, to then be transformed again in electric energy whenever we need.

Green and grey hydrogen

Currently the biggest part of the hydrogen used is the so called “grey” hydrogen, which is the one that comes from not renewable sources. The costs are surely lower then the green one, at the expense of the planet obviusly.

But the European Union announced a project focused to produce green hydrogen, from renewable sources!

In France, in Cappelle La Grande, a hundred of families are supplied of energy thanks to the hydrogen. An electrolyzer, right outside the city, divides the oxygen from the hydrogen, thanks to the green energy that comes from a close wind park.

Thanks to this system at Cappelle La Grande they reduced of the 7% the emissions produced by boilers and kitchens. But the one of the small france community is only the first one of a serie of experimentations wanted and promoted by the European Union.

Introducing the hydrogen in the local networks of gas can speed up the passage from the fossil energy to the cleanest one of the renewables. Will it really be this one the missing ring between a “grey” past and a “green” future?

This post is also available in: Italiano