What is the relationship between large-scale environmental destruction (large-scale) and a relatively insignificant gaz?
The intersection of climate changes, renewables lobby, and a heap of amazing assumptions is the key to the answer. Welcome to the fairytale land of green hydrogen, where the environment is sacrificed to satisfy ethereal models for the future.
Both federal and state governments are quick to offer upContributor fundsTo see green hydrogen replace oil, coal, and gas in industries like power generation, steel manufacturing, and transport. However, electrolysis is a costly method of extracting hydrogen gas out of water.
The production of the immense amounts of green hydrocarbons proposed by Alan Finkel, Twiggy Forrest, and Twiggy Forrest would require huge amounts of solar and wind power. The construction of huge quantities of solar panels, wind turbines, and transmission cables will also have significant environmental impacts.
In its draftPlan for 2022 Integrated System(ISP), Australia’s Energy Market Operator (AEMO), predicts that Australia’s wind and solar capacities will need to grow nine-fold in order to replace the retiring coal-fired generators, and to meet the demand for electric vehicles. But, that number would be dwarfed due to the additional capacity needed to support green hydrogen.
It is amazing to see the scale of the solar and wind power required to produce hydrogen in meaningful quantities.
Twiggys desireTo produce 15,000,000 tonnes per year of hydrogen, it would take 750 TWh to generate electricity. This is almost three times the amount of electricity produced in the eastern states. This would require 3,000 new sites of wind and sun, with an average capacity of 100 MW, spread from Gippsland through Weipa. The transmission lines would also need to be expanded massively to supply the required amount of hydrogen.
AEMOs hydrogen scenario has even more crazy figures, with almost forty times the existing wind and solar capacity, and associated transmission expansion to support. Australia will be able to cover large areas of land with wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines to create a product that doesn’t have a market.
The ABC recently covered the story.environmental damageThe growth of renewables to date. AA typical wind turbineBase requires between 450-650 cubic meters of concrete and 100 tonnes steel. This cannot be removed or recycled. One-third of Australia’s ten million homes have solar panel systems, which are mostly made from low-value waste. It is not often that people talk about land use or recycling or what happens when the first generation renewables are no longer useful. These issues are multiplied exponentially by green hydrogen.
AEMO justifies a massive transmission construction with theThe following procedure is followed:
- Hydrogen will be a major source of electricity in the future.
- Assume that it comes from wind and solar
- Consulting industry stakeholders can assign a likelihood
- Bias their cost-benefit-analysis using this likelihood
- Massive transmission build is the ideal development path!
Source:AEMO2022 Draft Integrated System Plan
The media has not acted on several important questions that are underpinning green hydrogen.
Who pays for the massive expansion in transmission? How are large numbers of solar panels and wind turbines disposed of at the end their short lives? What are the environmental effects? And what happens to our electricity markets? Are there large quantities of solar panels and wind turbines being made? Where is the market for green hydrogen and renewable energy?
The numbers don’t add up, for efficient supply or the environment.
Ben is an electrician in the power and natural-gas sector. He is not at all surprised by the absurd claims made regarding green hydrogen.
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