The Energy Absurdity of the Week: Hydrogen Joins EVs in the Grand Pantheon of Failing Alternatives to ICE Cars

I couldn’t begin to even estimate the number of stories I’ve seen over the last 30 years loudly proclaiming that hydrogen cars are the real future in the transportation space. And hey, you have to admit there is some logic to it, as long as you don’t look too deeply into the problem.

After all, hydrogen is, as the graphic here shows, the most abundant element in the universe. It is also highly combustible, as the passengers on the Hindenburg found out the hard way in 1937:

Oh, the humanity!

So, it’s everywhere, it’s combustible, what could possibly be the holdup?

30 years later, we have discovered that the array of holdups are almost endless, starting with how to source the trillions of dollars in capital that would be needed to build out all the infrastructure that would have to be constructed to facilitate a mass conversion away from gas powered ICE cars. Then, you would need trillions more dollars to convert old factories or build new ones to manufacture the billions of cars. Then, you’d probably need trillions more to re-jigger all the global supply chains to move hydrogen all over the world on ships.