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Hydrogen for Transport—Nonsensical According to Enel CEO, Starace

Is hydrogen a great idea for transportation and heating applications? No. Not according to a recent Recharge News interview with the CEO of Enel, Francesco Starace [1]. Enel is the largest electricity company in Europe by market cap and other financial metrics. His main interview point was that green hydrogen should be used only for existing applications, which is currently supplied principally by gray hydrogen. He called nonsensical the idea of using green hydrogen for transportation or heating. He gave the example that 50kWh of electricity would enable an EV to travel approximately three times as far as a fuel cell vehicle powered by hydrogen produced by that same 50kWh of electricity. Numerous studies back up Starace’s assertion [2-7].
In a related Recharge News interview [8], Starace listed a point-by-point rebuttal of fossil fuel industry claims against the viability of an all-electric future powered by renewable energy. His primary point rebutting the intermittency of renewables was the availability of over ten thousand megawatt-hours of energy storage grid resources, in Europe alone, via the batteries of future EVs.
References
1. Collins, Leigh, Using clean hydrogen for domestic heating and transport is ‘nonsensical’, says Enel CEO, https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/using-clean-hydrogen-for-domestic-heating-and-transport-is-nonsensical-says-enel-ceo/2-1-1039690, Recharge News, July 2021.
2. Decock, G., Electrofuels? Yes, We Can…If We’re Efficient, Transport & Environment, https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/2020_12_Briefing_feasibility_study_renewables_decarbonisation.pdf, December 2020.
3. Wood Mackenzie, Green Hydrogen Production: Landscape, Projects and Costs, Executive Summary, Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, https://www.woodmac.com/reports/energy-markets-executive-summary-green-hydrogen-production-landscape-projects-and-costs-392370, October 2019.
4. Morris, C., Prominent Energy Researcher Believes in Electric Trucks Over Fuel Cells, insideevs.com, https://insideevs.com/features/462434/energy-researchers-electric-trucks-win/, December 2020.
5. Moultak, M., N. Lutsey, and D. Hall, Transitioning to Zero-Emission Heavy-Duty Freight Vehicles, The International Council On Clean Transportation (www.theicct.org), https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Zero-emission-freight-trucks_ICCT-white-paper_26092017_vF.pdf, September 2017.
6. Phadke, A, etal., Why Regional and Long-Haul Trucks Are Primed for Electrification Now, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/publications/why-regional-and-long-haul-trucks-are. March 2021.
7. Messagie, M., Life Cycle Analysis of the Climate Impact of Electric Vehicles, Transport & Environment, https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/TE%20-%20draft%20report%20v04.pdf, draft 2021.
8. Collins, Leigh, Enel CEO: 'Clean electricity will power 99% of Europe’s transport and heating by 2050 — and this is how it will work', https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/enel-ceo-clean-electricity-will-power-99-of-europe-s-transport-and-heating-by-2050-and-this-is-how-it-will-work/2-1-1039642, Recharge News, July 2021.
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