Musk: Using hydrogen for energy storage “the stupidest thing I can think of!”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked in an interview at the Electric Vehicle Summit a few days ago if he thought hydrogen could play a role in accelerating the transition from fossil fuels. Musk’s answer: “Hydrogen is the dumbest thing I can imagine for energy storage”
A bad choice
Musk said: “I really can’t stress it enough – the number of times I’ve been asked about hydrogen, it’s probably…it’s well over 100 times, maybe 200. It’s important to understand that, If you want a means of energy storage, hydrogen is a bad choice.”
Musk went on to say that it needs “giant tanks” to hold hydrogen in liquid form, and larger tanks if it’s to be stored in gas form body.
Musk said using hydrogen for energy storage is the stupidest thing I can think of
Described by the International Energy Agency as a “multifunctional energy carrier”, hydrogen has multiple uses and can be deployed in sectors such as industry and transport. In 2019, the International Energy Agency said that hydrogen is “one of the leading options for storing renewable energy, and is expected to be the lowest-cost option for storing electricity for days, weeks, and even months.
Abundant resource
Hydrogen fuel can be sourced from regions with abundant solar and wind resources. , like Australia or Latin America, to energy-poor cities thousands of kilometers away.”
Musk’s Tesla EVs and battery Powerwall equipment use lithium batteries as energy storage carrier
Musk has a history of expressing strong opinions on hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells. When the issue was discussed with reporters at Automotive News World a few years ago, the electric car giant described hydrogen fuel cells as “very stupid.” In June 2020, he tweeted “Fuel Cells = Fools Sale”, adding in July of that year: “Hydrogen’s ‘fools sale’ makes no sense.”
Judging by Musk’s latest comments, he still doesn’t believe in hydrogen. Hydrogen doesn’t occur naturally on Earth, so you either electrolyze water or crack hydrocarbons, he said. “When you crack hydrocarbons, you really don’t solve the fossil fuel problem, and electrolysis of water is very inefficient”.
“If you had to liquefy…hydrogen, oh my god…the amount of energy it takes to make hydrogen and convert it into liquid form is staggering. For energy storage, that’s all the dumbest things imaginable.”
Different perspectives
Musk was dismissive of hydrogen’s role in the energy transition, but other influential voices were a little more optimistic. Among them is Anna Shpitsberg, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Transition. Shpitsberg called hydrogen “a game-changing technology that can interact with a variety of other sources…because it can support nuclear energy, it can support natural gas, it can support renewable energy, and so is carbon capture utilization and storage.”
Michele Della Vigna, head of Goldman Sachs’ EMEA Commodities Equity business unit, highlighted the important role he sees going forward.
“If we want to get to net zero, we can’t do it just with renewable energy,” he said. Della Vigna believes: “We need something that plays the role of natural gas today, especially managing seasonality and intermittency, which is hydrogen”
Della Vigna said: “Whether we use electrolysis or carbon capture, we need to produce hydrogen in a clean way. One day, hydrogen energy could be at least 15% of the global energy market, which means more than $1 trillion per year market.”
