Thomas Huxley has written somewhere: “The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.” This quote came to my mind as I read Vijay V Vaitheeswaran’s Power to the People: How the coming energy revolution will transform an industry, change our lives and maybe even save the planet (2007).
Vaitheeswaran is an Indian-born American journalist who writes for The Economist. His book starts off with how the nation-wide electricity grid is uneconomical due to the low efficiencies of the power plants and the transportation losses. He foresees a shift to micropower in the near future (which he refers to as the “coming energy revolution”). Micropower is basically when small power units are used to generate power for individual homes or buildings. And how will micropower be sourced? – from fuel cells! Vaitheeswaran also foresees the hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars which will soon replace the IC engine-driven cars.
How far has Vaitheeswaran got it right? I think his hypothesis falls short on various fronts. Firstly, hydrogen by itself is not a source of energy; it is a carrier of energy. It has to be generated from other sources such as coal or natural gas or sea water. Secondly, there are many problems with storage and transportation of hydrogen – problems which have not been solved yet. Thirdly, hydrogen is not fully safe – hydrogen burns with an invisible flame and somebody who walks into it may not realize it until he is inside. Fourthly, hydrogen powered cars would need a very pure feed of gas so as not to contaminate the catalysts.
To be fair, Vaitheeswaran anticipates most of these problems but offers more or less a hand-waving argument, hoping that these problems would eventually go away. But gone away, they haven’t. Indeed, Ballard Power Systems, a producer of PEM fuel cells, and which Vaitheeswaran is so gung-ho about, stopped manufacturing fuel cells for transportation purposes in late-2007.
As Joseph J Romm says in his book The Hype about Hydrogen (2005), the car of the future may not be a fuel cell driven one at all. It will probably be a hybrid-EV.
It has been eight years since Vaitheeswaran’s book came out, but we have not seen any progress in the micropower revolution. I googled up “micropower” and learnt that it is still in academic research stages. But maybe half a century ahead, things can be different. But that is a long time ahead.
Vaitheeswaran is an Indian-born American journalist who writes for The Economist. His book starts off with how the nation-wide electricity grid is uneconomical due to the low efficiencies of the power plants and the transportation losses. He foresees a shift to micropower in the near future (which he refers to as the “coming energy revolution”). Micropower is basically when small power units are used to generate power for individual homes or buildings. And how will micropower be sourced? – from fuel cells! Vaitheeswaran also foresees the hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars which will soon replace the IC engine-driven cars.
How far has Vaitheeswaran got it right? I think his hypothesis falls short on various fronts. Firstly, hydrogen by itself is not a source of energy; it is a carrier of energy. It has to be generated from other sources such as coal or natural gas or sea water. Secondly, there are many problems with storage and transportation of hydrogen – problems which have not been solved yet. Thirdly, hydrogen is not fully safe – hydrogen burns with an invisible flame and somebody who walks into it may not realize it until he is inside. Fourthly, hydrogen powered cars would need a very pure feed of gas so as not to contaminate the catalysts.
To be fair, Vaitheeswaran anticipates most of these problems but offers more or less a hand-waving argument, hoping that these problems would eventually go away. But gone away, they haven’t. Indeed, Ballard Power Systems, a producer of PEM fuel cells, and which Vaitheeswaran is so gung-ho about, stopped manufacturing fuel cells for transportation purposes in late-2007.
As Joseph J Romm says in his book The Hype about Hydrogen (2005), the car of the future may not be a fuel cell driven one at all. It will probably be a hybrid-EV.
It has been eight years since Vaitheeswaran’s book came out, but we have not seen any progress in the micropower revolution. I googled up “micropower” and learnt that it is still in academic research stages. But maybe half a century ahead, things can be different. But that is a long time ahead.
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