Hydrogen’s detour persisted because incumbent assets, skills and institutions had reasons to keep the molecule economy politically viable after the economics weakened.
In 2023, a senior executive responsible for decarbonizing a major transportation company asked me, with some exasperation, what drove the “madness on hydrogen.” Hydrogen proposals kept arriving for applications where the energy balance and economics looked dreadful. That conversation became What Drives This Madness On Hydrogen?, an attempt to explain … [continued]
Cross-border electricity links increasingly add security and resilience value to their existing roles in markets, adequacy and renewable integration.
Energy independence was an understandable slogan in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas and electricity prices through the roof. But it was also the wrong lesson. European countries had not erred by depending on one another. They had allowed too much of a critical energy supply to depend … [continued]
A paid-off old pickup can be rational to keep today. Affordable electric trucks and targeted scrappage can make its eventual replacement rational too.
A reader who owns a hand-me-down 1995 Dodge Ram plans to keep repairing it until rust, gasoline prices or regulation finally stop him. I think he is making a rational household decision. The truck is paid for, he knows how to maintain it, and a repair bill of hundreds or … [continued]
Putting MWh over an industrial hydrogen supply chain changes the framing, not the underlying market: real buyers still purchase hydrogen by mass.
Global hydrogen demand exceeded 100 million tonnes in 2025, and almost all of it was still consumed where hydrogen has been used for decades: refining and industry. That is why kilograms and tonnes are not merely traditional units. They describe the market that exists. An ammonia plant buys a chemical … [continued]
Replacing a working gasoline vehicle can create a short manufacturing carbon debt while avoiding years of much larger combustion emissions.
“The greenest car is the one already built” has been one of the more durable arguments against replacing internal combustion cars with EVs. It sounds sensible enough. Manufacturing a new vehicle has a carbon cost, while continuing to drive an existing car avoids another manufacturing event. But that framing quietly … [continued]
Transition claims become serious only after they survive the science, beat the alternatives, and pass through adoption reality.
A lot of transition analysis gives too much credit to technologies that can be made to work and not enough scrutiny to whether they matter. The difference shows up across carbon capture hubs, synthetic fuel claims, small modular reactor schedules, cement decarbonization pathways, aviation fuel projections, ammonia shipping forecasts, grid … [continued]
Polymodular by George Harvey. A drawing seems almost impossible to understand, so I made this out of special blocks I had made up.
Every once in a while, reading articles at CleanTechnica, I feel an urge to overcome my reluctance to put myself into the spotlight by writing about my own inventions. I am afraid that Steve Hanley, who happens to be one of my favorite CleanTechnica authors, put up the straw that … [continued]
You’ve heard of BIL and NEVI by now, right? They mean great things for the clean tech revolution, the adoption of EVs in the US, and improving the EV driver and charging experience. First, let’s break down the acronyms: we all know EVs (electric vehicles); BIL = the Bipartisan Infrastructure … [continued]
The Swedish city of Gothenburg is home to one of the largest and busiest ports in the world. Despite this, the city has set a rather ambitious climate goal for itself. With the help newly created urban zones that will serve as test beds for advanced sustainable technologies, Gothenburg plans to become a climate-neutral city by the year 2030. What’s more, they’ve enlisted Volvo to help.
In a move that’s good news for Kiwis of all kinds, New Zealand now requires that ALL government departments buy EVs over ICEs.
