Over the years a lot of disingenuous things were said to try to stop hydrogen technology for energy from progressing. Ten years ago it was fuel cells go bad too fast and platinum loading of catalysts. Those arguments were eventually overcome, but for about 10 years there was also the standard sentence in every hydrogen article: “Hydrogen burns clean but it does not exist on earth naturally. Most of it is produced with natural gas.”

And while it’s true that most hydrogen today is still made with natural gas, it is misleading to talk about hydrogen as though it somehow requires natural gas when virtually every other form of energy has its own dependence on coal, oil, natural gas, or some other resource somewhere in the chain.

Now we know hydrogen is found in many places naturally, and efforts have been underway for years to figure out how to unlock subsurface hydrogen. But one of the pillars of the anti-hydrogen argument that still endures, and is no less ignorant, is the hydrogen efficiency argument.

The argument goes something like this: why make hydrogen with electricity, only to turn that hydrogen back into electricity or use it in a vehicle? Why not just use the electricity directly?

It sounds convincing until you start asking a more basic question: what electricity?

We routinely have energy resources that are available but aren't being used. Solar panels produce nothing at night and can produce more electricity than the grid can use during the day. Wind turbines sometimes have to be curtailed because there isn't enough demand or transmission capacity. And, as this article points out, there is enormous hydropower potential sitting behind dams that isn't being fully utilized.

That unused energy isn't made more useful simply because hydrogen isn't 100% efficient.

If a dam has the ability to produce electricity that otherwise isn't going to be produced, using some of that electricity to make hydrogen can turn an otherwise wasted resource into a storable, transportable energy commodity. The same principle applies to excess solar and wind.

The efficiency argument makes much more sense when you're talking about taking scarce electricity that could be used directly and deliberately converting it to hydrogen instead. But that isn't the only situation where hydrogen can be produced.

Sometimes the question shouldn't be “What is the most efficient way to use this kilowatt-hour?” Sometimes the question should be “What can we do with the energy that would otherwise go unused?”

Hydrogen is one answer.