Little by little
Today, the hydrogen industry is trying to run before it can walk. Large-scale projects are idealistic and aspirational, but when we look at the commercial viability, they often fall short. Investors get nervous when off-takers can’t commit, and off-takers get nervous because the gas price is too high to build a business on. There are mechanisms (e.g. HAR) in place to help break this cycle, but the fundamental issues still exist. Even with this help, hydrogen is much more expensive than diesel, and electricity, and pretty much every other fuel today.
So, what should we do to keep hydrogen moving? I remember my fizzy-drink-selling father-in-law commenting that his business wasn’t really affected by the financial crash in 2008, because people could still afford 80p for a can of Pepsi. We need to look at what’s affordable to do today with hydrogen. This will mean small steps to start with and getting on with the comparatively low budget equipment first.
When we think of CO2 alone, these small actions appear seemingly pointless because they don’t deliver the bang for the buck with CO2 reduction that we all aspire to. The other benefits of hydrogen equipment mustn’t be overlooked, and add arguably more value than the CO2 reduction alone when it comes to business operations.
Thinking more about CO2, there is a Japanese saying; ‘Even dust, when piled up, can become a mountain’. Every small energy usage reduction contributes to CO2 reduction, and we must not avoid taking these seemingly insignificant steps because we are waiting for some future, much bigger ‘quick fix’ to appear. These small reductions in consumption more or less directly result in a CO2 output reduction, so are still worth taking.
There’s pretty much unanimous agreement globally amongst climate scientists that we need to reduce our CO2 output. Reducing this CO2 output, or ‘carbon footprint’, it’s hoped, will help us to mitigate the impact of climate change, and its consequences. This is not something that can wait. The choices we make today, will have an amplified impact on our children, and their children. Our action needs to be fast, and at every scale.
It’s easy to sit back and think that someone else, ‘higher up’ will take care of this problem. Governments will ban coal, wind turbines will go up, and your company will make you drive an electric car. Maybe someone clever will invent something. You don’t have to do anything, right?
Wrong.
Letting someone else lead isn’t just the easy option; it’s the lazy option. Life is much simpler when you do what someone else tells you to. You have enough decisions to make just getting dressed in the morning, never mind deciding on how to save the planet. This is a trap.
The problem is, with this lazy feet-up or hands-off approach, we will never achieve our very necessary climate goals. Policies and laws take years to put into force, and whilst we’re all waiting for the Government to do something, or a technological solution to be created, the sea will be lapping at our front doorsteps.
This lazy approach is deadly (perhaps literally). If we all sit on our hands because we think the impacts of our actions are inconsequential, then nothing will change.
On an individual (non-business) level there are of course steps we can take, and choices we can make today that can contribute in some way, big or small, to help reduce our carbon footprint. Switching off lights, turning down the heating and only boiling the water you need, are all examples. And we should all be doing these already. They are easy.
What about in business? How do we justify spending on these more expensive solutions, when the incumbent technology is available at a lower price?
It’s well understood that technology and solutions when they’re new are often more expensive than the incumbent. That’s how new technology works. There’s less of it, the supply chain is not optimised, and the market is not developed. Remember how much flat screen plasma TV’s cost when they came onto the market? A lot.
We’ve got to look at the value-add. That value-add could be anything from providing a better working environment to doing a better job, whatever better means. My pal managed to justify his £4k spend on the plasma TV in 2001 by telling his wife that it would make the living room seem bigger as it took up less space on the floor. Now flat screen TV’s are 10% of that cost, and most people can afford one, and benefit from the increase in floor space as well.
New fuels will of course be more expensive than the fuels we’ve been using for the last 100 years. Whether that’s synthetic diesel, or hydrogen, their production processes and logistics activities have not been optimised. The supply chain that provides the equipment for their production does not yet benefit from volume optimisation. The simple fact is that this cost has to be borne by someone. It’s the first movers, the trend setters and the industry leaders who will make this investment. The good news is that this investment is small, if you start with the small equipment.
One example of a small investment that can contribute to this incremental change is our TH200 hydrogen-powered lighting tower. The outlay will be a small proportion of a project cost. Not only will you reduce your CO2 emissions, but you’ll benefit from the other aspects that hydrogen fuel cell equipment delivers (no noise, no fumes, no leaks and no smells, all coupled with the best lights to work under, in the industry).
Choosing the TH200 isn’t just a purchase decision; it’s a statement of intent. It’s about leading by example and investing in a future where sustainability is the norm, not the exception.
Written by Jim Irvine
TCP Eco, Development & Operations Director
