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US grid adds batteries at 10x the rate of natural gas in first half of 2024 (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by SeaJ@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Which is why hydrogen is so interesting to me, especially solar-generated hydrogen. It’s a pain to store, but if it’s used relatively quickly, the losses should be small enough to make it worthwhile.

The pain with hydrogen storage isn't just leakage (which is a huge problem because of how small the molecule is), but energy density. Gaseous hydrogen needs either extremely large containers or really extreme pressures (meaning thick, heavy, expensive) and even then its not very much energy storage. To get even higher density requires liquification, which means which is only reached at −253°C (−423°F), and that also requires large expensive machinery and energy to run it.

Unless you're changing hydrogen into something else (like ammonia), hydrogen isn't a great solution for energy storage or transportation.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Not for transportation (e.g. pipes), but it seems pretty good for localized energy storage, like for forklifts/heavy machinery at a warehouse/factory. It's probably not a good fit for grid scale storage, but who knows, maybe we'll find a use case to replace natural gas plants for night-time generation. I don't think hydrogen cars will really be a thing, but maybe hydrogen long-haul trucks or trains could be (i.e. machines with predictable stops where they can refuel).