Black Hole
May contain traces of nut
So we need solutions which work, not band-wagons. It isn't relevant that hydrogen is only 30% efficient (or whatever) if it releases no carbon in the overall cycle and provides the necessary range.
Suppose you could somehow "hydrogen enrich" existing transport fuels and retain compatibility with existing engines - that would provide a stop-gap.
...but we're doomed anyway, it matters not a jot what you or I might do personally.
Quite so. But we are years away, decades probably, from having sufficient clean power to produce that hydrogen.
You also need to account the energy and material required to build all that generation - at present you'll need about 2.5 times more generation capacity for hydrogen than battery. So for example you'd need a windfarm that's 2.5 times larger, and they aren't exactly small or cheap now.
In the meantime batteries are the only solution that is here now, regardless of how imperfect they might be.
There is talk of mixing hydrogen into the gas supply grid to 'decarbonise' it, but as with bio fuels there are limits to how much can be done before you have to start modifying the transportation and consuming equipment to handle it.
But that's all gas - I imagine trying to mix gas and liquid fuels would be even more challenging.
To gauge the level of the problem, and as the "Poll" forum option is too light-weight, I've built a survey on survio.com (free plan for up to 100 respondents, recommended). Rather than put the link to the survey in public, anyone who would like to fill it in please ping me a PM (click here). I'll publish the outcome in a week or so.
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