Now, the list of failed hydrogen projects has grown quite long, squandering billions of dollars on yet another futile climate initiative. An American company that specializes in hydrogen officially canceled plans to build a green hydrogen plant at the Port of Antwerp. In mid-August, Plug Power cited "uncertainty about economic viability" in explaining the cancellation, which will force the company to take a $15.9 million loss.
Hydrogen enjoyed quite a bit of hype during the Biden-Harris administration as it promised to replace a lot of fossil fuel use. Even early on, researchers and industry critics expressed grave doubts that the industry had a future. Plug Power’s latest cancellation is but one in a string of failures that are vindicating critics who said the industry was all hype.
Hydrogen can be produced using different feedstocks, including coal and natural gas. Hydrogen produced with an electrolysis process powered by wind and solar that breaks water into hydrogen and oxygen is called green hydrogen.
Anti-fossil fuel advocates saw green hydrogen as the path to net-zero and their dream of a world powered entirely by energy from the wind and sun. Net-zero means the amount of greenhouse gas emissions added to the atmosphere equals the amount removed.
As is often the case with green energy schemes, these challenges didn’t deter those who prize emission reductions above all other considerations. The Biden-Harris administration put up $8 billion in taxpayer funds to develop a hydrogen economy in the U.S., which included support for seven hydrogen hubs.
30-40 years ago, Scientific American had a scholarly article explaining that only nukes could produce power cheap enough to economically produce hydrogen. The physics is still the same.