Technology assessment of green hydrogen as a significant energy storage component of zero carbon economies needed before 2050

Abstract

We will investigate one of the most expected, central avenues of promising technology to address the urgent demand for net zero economies by 2050--the promise of green hydrogen. It is a key emerging technological pathway to reaching net zero economies by 2050, especially for large industrial energy consumers and the transportation sector.  Furthermore, this project aims to assess the overall societal implications of this large-scale energy storage infrastructure program or approach, which would be a crucial step in addressing the climate crisis.Dunwei and Dave will jointly identify the key social, economic, and political barriers and risks associated with economy-wide green hydrogen infrastructure built upon the most promising techniques and projects to date.  Together, they will contrast the risks and implications in countries already using hydrogen relatively widely, as opposed to those without this experience.  Finally, they will integrate related research by BC colleagues (and Deese’s teaching) on justice and the energy transition to indicate key ways in which energy and climate justice may be aggravated or advanced by green hydrogen economies.

Presentations

• Dave Deese was invited to give a talk in Fall 2024 based on this work at MIT in the Center for Global Change
  

Students Trained 

• 2 Undergraduate Students
  • Tyler Moore
  • Ella Sirakovsky