Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier: World-Wide Perspectives

This panel will discuss hydrogen being an energy carrier, in parallel with electricity. As decarbonization continues to progress world-wide, our electricity-centric energy systems face significant challenges in infrastructure expansion and long duration storage. It has been recognized that the electric infrastructure needs to be expanded at least twice to accommodate new electrified demand, but it is extreme challenging to do it within two decades. Significant long duration energy storage is necessary for mitigating diurnal and seasonal variability of renewable resources, while the conventional technologies such as lithium-ion batteries are not cost effective. We need to look for another energy carrier, and hydrogen is such a potential energy carrier. Hydrogen and its related forms such as ammonia and syn-fuels are a great option for long duration energy storage, and they can be an important energy carrier for several end uses. Hydrogen transport networks can be complementary with the electric infrastructure and thus significantly relieve the need for building new power lines. This panel session invites world-wide experts to explore such potentials of hydrogen and discuss hydrogen production, transport, and interdependency with the electric infrastructure. The goal is to shed light on pathways to decarbonization with hydrogen being part of the equation.