Green hydrogen and derived hydrocarbons from areas with sufficient insolation are expected to be very much cost competitive within 3-5 years. [0] Locally produced green hydrogen in areas with less optimal insolation is projected to stay more expensive.
[0] Please do a web search for green hydrogen cost forecast .
I also think that hydrogen is going to be a big part of the future energy mix ( I've even bought stock in companies around that space).
However, today it's expensive, impractical and it would require non insignificant infrastructure investments to be brought up to "grid scale storage to cover in case of multiple days no wind and no sun" capacity. So it won't happen anytime soon ( which doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in it to being it about sooner).
The neat thing about hydrogen is that in the short term you can supplement natural gas with hydrogen using the same or similar generation plants. In the long term deploying hydrogen infrastructure is pretty similar to managing natural gas which we already do at scale.
Solar + hydrogen storage probably is the only long term mass scale alternative to nuclear short of fusion.
>In the long term deploying hydrogen infrastructure is pretty similar to managing natural gas which we already do at scale.
100%. absolutely. wrong.
Hydrogen destroys metal pipes, makes them brittle. It leaks thru solid metal steel walls. Hydrogen fires are invisible. Explosions can launch you into the orbit.
It's nothing like methane at scale, and will most likely simply be converted to some hydrocarbons.
Hydrogen is generally a problem only at high pressure. Before we had "natural gas", we had "lamp gas", hydrogen and carbon monoxide delivered via cast-iron pipes.
The usual form of stored bulk hydrogen will be cryogenic liquid at only a little above atmospheric pressure.
That said, ammonia is a more practical storage medium. Unlike methane, it only needs universally available feedstocks: hydrogen from water and nitrogen from air, and may be stored at room temperature under not very high pressure.
You can blend hydrogen in to existing natural gas infrastructure at up to 10%.
There's an Australian dual fuel plant going in to service in a couple years that can do from 5% to up to 100% hydrogen in the future.
While you can't use existing natural gas infrastructure, the logistics of hydrogen are pretty similar, otherwise blending and dual fuel systems wouldn't be possible.
[0] Please do a web search for green hydrogen cost forecast .