Before betting everything on green hydrogen

Green hydrogen. It’s the new buzzword, “flavor of the month”. The one that puts stars in the eyes of our politicians.

This week, we learned that François Legault wanted to devote a crown corporation to it – nothing less. Dominique Anglade replied by the bidding. The liberal leader promises to nationalize the product. She wants to use the income to reinvest in social programs. Make it a “social project”.

We will not blame our elected officials for taking an interest in green solutions. Hydrogen has a role to play in decarbonizing the economy and it is gratifying to see that Quebec wants to jump into this boat. Likewise, we must salute the Legault government’s determination to break into the electric battery market.

But in the case of green hydrogen, experts nonetheless watch in disbelief the current escalation of promises.

Skeptical voices are rising, including within the Legault government itself. But we put them aside because they don’t sing the popular chorus in unison.

Before drawing heavily on the Green Fund and the coffers of Investissement Québec to head for this El Dorado, we would do well to listen to them and ask ourselves two or three questions.

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Green hydrogen is neither a natural resource nor a form of energy. It is simply a product of hydroelectricity.

To produce green hydrogen, an electric current is passed through water to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The process results in colossal losses. Depending on its end use, hydrogen will only return 10 to 35% of the energy that was used to produce it. Everything else is lost.

Why waste electricity in this way? It is much more efficient (and immeasurably cheaper) to use it directly. But for certain specific sectors, we are unable to electrify the processes. We think of the manufacture of steel. To the production of ammonia for fertilizers. To maritime transport.

In these cases, if we want to decarbonize, we have to accept the energy losses and swap fossil fuels for green hydrogen. We have no other choice.

“There is a place for green hydrogen, but for fairly specialized niche sectors,” summarizes Johanne Whitmore, principal researcher at the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal.

In its report on Quebec’s energy transition, the consulting firm Dunsky also concludes that the production of hydrogen from electricity is “unattractive” from an economic point of view because of the “energy inefficiency” of the fuel. process.

The firm sees green hydrogen coming to the end of the race to decarbonize the last sectors of Quebec’s economy by 2050. Even in the most generous scenario, it would barely meet 3% of energy needs.

The question is not therefore whether Quebec should embark on green hydrogen. It must do so if it wants to achieve carbon neutrality. We must rather wonder about the intensity of the effort that we want to devote to it. And on the purpose of the product.

Our politicians dream of exporting green hydrogen throughout northeastern North America. It is true that the Boston Consulting Group is forecasting significant demand. Several small markets put together, it can end up making a big market.

But turning Quebec into an exporter of hydrogen will not be done in a hurry. Hydrogen is volatile and explosive. Moving it is complex and expensive. And since it takes energy to transport it, that further drops fuel efficiency.

Above all, it will be necessary to launch a real reflection on the best way to use our electricity. Because the era of surpluses is coming to an end and uses will soon come into competition. Our clean electricity can be used to power our cars, buses and trains. It can be used as a bait to attract industries. We can complete the electrification of our institutional, commercial and residential buildings.

It can also be exported directly to the United States, without a technological issue and in a lucrative way, as the recent contract with New York proves.

And we can turn it into green hydrogen.

What proportion do we want to devote to each use? What solutions will bring the best economic and environmental gains?

This is what a potential crown corporation should be looking at. By avoiding providing the answers before asking the questions.

What about Germany?

France and Germany rely heavily on green hydrogen. Isn’t that proof that you have to get started? May be. But realize that the context is different. There, we cannot instantly adjust the output of nuclear power plants and wind turbines according to demand. When the wind turbines turn at night and the demand for electricity is low, we are stuck with surpluses. Converting them into hydrogen, even with losses, avoids waste. In our country, we can simply retain water in dams – an energy storage that is far more efficient than that provided by hydrogen.