Pricing fertilizer emissions sounds like a recipe for more expensive food, but when the numbers are worked carefully, it turns out to be a policy that cuts emissions sharply while barely moving grocery prices. The reason is simple and counterintuitive. Fertilizer is a large share of farm costs and an … [continued]
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]
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]
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]
The most important policy lesson from the 400 km European hydrogen backbone segment with no suppliers and no offtakers—a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere—I wrote about recently is that decarbonization succeeds or fails on demand realism, not technological aspiration. Europe knew, as early as the late 2000s, that deep electrification … [continued]
The idea of a European green steel premium has become widely accepted over the past several years. It rests on the belief that Europe can decarbonize its steel sector domestically, absorb higher production costs through a mix of policy support and buyer willingness, and maintain industrial competitiveness while doing so. … [continued]
Germany recently completed and pressurized the first roughly 400km segment of its national hydrogen backbone. The pipes are in the ground, the compressors work, and the system is technically ready. There is only one problem. There are no meaningful hydrogen suppliers connected and no material customers contracted. This is not … [continued]
Texas has emerged as a hotbed of green hydrogen activity in the US, supported in part by know-how borrowed from the oil and gas industry. Now another iconic fossil fuel state, Oklahoma, is jockeying for a piece of the action. A case in point is the Oklahoma City startup Tobe … [continued]
Duke Energy Florida credits solar power with the bulk of a $1 billion savings for ratepayers expected by March of this year, while experimenting with green hydrogen for the long term.
