Does clean hydrogen have a future? Finding a role for hydrogen in a low-carbon energy economy

The Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Alternative Energy, Tech News, 958784, Environment, Technology, Renewable Energy, Energy, Business, Sustainability, Wind Energy, Climate Change, Cleantech, News, Solar Energy, Innovation, News Commentary

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hydrogen has been called the Swiss Army knife of energy, because it has so many potential applications, from home heating to heavy industry. But so far, deployment around the world has been slow. And in recent months there has been a series of setbacks for plans to use clean hydrogen to decarbonise energy systems. So what’s the problem?

Is it unsuitable infrastructure, policy uncertainty, or fundamental challenges of physics and economics? Does hydrogen really have a role to play in the low-carbon energy system of the future? And if it does, what does the industry need to get there?

To find out, host Ed Crooks is joined by Dr Melissa Lott, Partner General Manager in Energy Technologies at Microsoft, and Austin Knight, Vice President for hydrogen at Chevron New Energies.

Hydrogen is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it could help us tackle some of the toughest challenges in decarbonisation. It may be expensive, but in some sectors it looks like a more cost-effective solution for achieving net zero than any other option.

For some proposed applications, it looks pretty clear that hydrogen is going to be a non-starter. But Austin says there are some sectors where it still has a viable future. Chevron is investing in hydrogen fuel suppliers and fuelling stations for heavy trucks across California, for example. As Melissa says, the infrastructure just isn’t there yet to make hydrogen a viable option today. But is it a case of “if” hydrogen becomes a commercial reality, or “when”? Find out here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to The Energy Gang, a discussion show from Wood Mackenzie about the
0:07.4	fast-changing world of energy. I'm it Crooks. And on this episode, we're going to be talking
0:12.0	about hydrogen, sometimes called the Swiss Army knife of decarbonisation, because it has such a
0:18.0	wide range of potential uses. But right now it feels as though some of the blades on that knife are turning out to be quite blunt.
0:24.6	And that's what we're going to be talking about on this show.
0:27.0	To do that, I'm joined by Melissa Lott, who is the partner general manager for energy technologies at Microsoft.
0:32.2	Hi, Melissa, welcome back.
0:33.4	Hey, Ed, it's good to see you.
0:34.7	Looking forward to this chat, this discussion we're going to have.
0:37.8	Absolutely. Great. See you again. As usual, we have to issue that standard corporate disclaimer.
0:42.3	Any views expressed on this podcast are yours, personally, not those of the Microsoft Corporation, just to get that out of the way.
0:49.2	Exactly. I'm just here to nerd out as a multi-decadal energy nerd who really thinks about these things to an
0:56.3	interesting degree every day. Indeed. And we are very, very glad that you are. And we're also
1:02.6	invited onto the show. I don't know if you'd be offended if we called you a nerd as well,
1:07.1	Austin, but he's certainly a compliment. It's a compliment. I've been called worse.
1:12.5	Exactly. In this company, it definitely counts as a compliment. I think he's got a very good
1:16.8	claim to be counted as one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on the subject of the
1:21.4	hydrogen business. He is Austin Knight, who is the vice president of hydrogen for Chevron New Energy's.
1:27.0	Hi, Austin. Welcome to the energy gang. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me for Chevron, new energies. Hi, Austin.
1:28.5	Welcome to the energy gang.
1:29.5	Yeah, thank you.
1:30.1	Thanks for having me.
	...

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