Google Gemini generated this infographic, which visualizes the workforce dynamics of Germany's energy transition, contrasting the signals and needs for hydrogen versus electrification strategies.
Germany’s hydrogen backbone with no customers and no suppliers has been examined from multiple angles in this series, starting with the pipeline from nowhere to nowhere itself and the energy and other demand flows that won’t materialize, then moving through Germany’s misguided analyses that led to it, the implications of … [continued]
Google Gemini generated this detailed infographic visualizing the carbon emissions lifecycle associated with converting a large natural gas pipeline to hydrogen in Germany.
Germany’s 400 km hydrogen backbone segment is now pressurized, full of fossil hydrogen, and waiting. There are no meaningful suppliers connected to it and no contracted offtakers drawing molecules out. That fact alone makes it worth slowing down and doing the accounting carefully, because large infrastructure decisions do not become … [continued]
Germany has announced a new incentive program for EVs, PHEVs, and EREVs that includes imports from Chinese manufacturers.
The German hydrogen backbone without customers or suppliers—a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere—is real steel in the ground, pressurized and defended as inevitable, yet it is being built for an energy system that does not need it. That claim sounds provocative until the energy flows are laid out in full. … [continued]
Google Gemini generated this conceptual illustration highlighting the physical continuity between infrastructure originally built for Russian natural gas and the proposed German Hydrogen Backbone.
Germany’s newly pressurized hydrogen backbone segment with no suppliers and no customers is often described as a clean break from the past, a necessary early investment in a future hydrogen economy. The steel tells a different story. The route, diameter, age, and economics of the pipeline point back to Russian … [continued]
Google Gemini generated this infographic comparing closed-loop geothermal design targets with early operational realities.
Eavor is a next-generation geothermal energy company that set out to solve one of the long-standing limits of geothermal power. Conventional geothermal electrical generation only works where naturally permeable, water bearing hot rock exists close enough to the surface. Eavor’s idea was different. Instead of relying on naturally flowing hot … [continued]
Google Gemini generated this infographic contrasting the immediate energy delivery of electricity system investments with a currently unused hydrogen pipeline, both costing ~€1 billion.
Germany has now completed and pressurized roughly 400 km of hydrogen backbone pipeline with no connected suppliers and no contracted customers, a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere. The infrastructure exists and is operational, but no hydrogen is flowing to anyone who has agreed to pay for it. This is not … [continued]
The comparison between Germany’s hydrogen backbone from nowhere to nowhere and China’s reported 1,000km-plus hydrogen pipeline keeps resurfacing, often framed as evidence that Germany is simply early rather than wrong. It is a fair question, because at a distance both projects appear similar. Both involve long-distance hydrogen pipelines. Both are … [continued]
Volkswagen saw strong electric vehicle sales growth in Europe last year, especially in its home market of Germany. It is probably no coincidence that Tesla sales plummeted in Europe, especially Germany, at the same time. I’ll circle back to that, but the bad news is that Volkswagen’s EV sales were … [continued]
Google Gemini generated conceptual illustration contrasting the stranded assets of failed hydrogen assumptions with the active reality of widespread electrification.
Germany’s hydrogen pipeline from nowhere to nowhere did not emerge from ignorance or indifference. It emerged from good intentions formed early, when climate risk was clear and credible solutions were scarce. In the 1990s and early 2000s, jurisdictions that accepted climate science faced a thin menu of options. Wind and … [continued]
