HYDROGEN ENERGY: ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

By Wayne Travis Managing Director XP Energy Corporation 

ENERGYCENTRAL - Sep 14, 2020 -  So many Elephants in the room - and not one Lion. An "Elephant in the Room" is a term used to describe the unspoken or awkward yet obvious issue, and so most people awkwardly talk around the issue - with tension and stress, yet their is comfort when everyone willingly talks around the issue... a sic kind of comfort.

As a Leader in Energy Solutions, I understand that a clear and honest uncovering of root causes of a problem is essential to good decision making.

So when people, society, governments, and forums dance around the root issue and refuse to acknowledge the real issue - tension and stress grows - and then hope comes as someone creates a new direction to divert attention from the Elephant, so as it has been going with Intermittent clean energy generation - a different focus or topic - to pacify the room.

The Green Hydrogen Solution - is an effort to divert the bigger Elephant - the intermittency of Solar and Wind production, specifically that Wind and Solar requirement of Storage for those technologies to be a reliable energy source - which has its own Elephant - The impossible economics of the quantity of energy storage required.

I had one prominent forum member state - you can not be serious about GHG unless you support Carbon Tax and Subsidy - such an brainwashed defeated man, and he continued - we have to make corporations pay... I guess he presumes corporations print money...  

So the diversion in Green hydrogen - "Green hydrogen is superior to batteries" which seems to give hope and cheers, while reality is that adding any new expense to the economically failed Wind and Solar solution is not a solution to the root issue - intermittency and demand matching.

So is this the way you would run things if you were in charge - because it is the way the clean energy process has been run the last twenty years:

Memo from the desk of the Clean Energy President:

'We shall ignore the issue of the economic failures of our solution and continue to add new expenses... because frankly - we don't have anything better, no real solution - and we have to do something - to divert people from reality.

Leadership is not about "doing something" it is about doing the right thing, doing the hard thing, and doing it the first time so that the real issue is solved and ended. 

The next Elephant in the room - the Subsidy, Penalty, and Carbon tax solution.... To force a product in the market that can not hold its own, to create manufacturing for an unsustainable product, to twist the arm of workers to pay for it all .... STUPID.. In the US we had a Mafia that said - "Pay us or we will hurt you"... and they would smile and say - "think of your children".... its the same game with subsidy. 

Holding a pen of legislation does not make it any less of a Mafia enforcement - and has become common place - people don't even notice they are working for the Mob. 

I had one prominent forum member state - "You can not be serious about GHG unless you support Carbon Tax and Subsidy"

Such an brainwashed defeated man, and he continued - we have to make corporations pay... I guess he presumes corporations print money... that mentality is a continuation of 'We have to do something... even if it isn't a real solution...its for the children." 

P.s. - if these fit your mindset - I will gladly share with you the real solution - that is my expertise, and i am sorry if you grew up in a time when those were the only paths offered.

We need a Lion to stand up and say "NO STUPID - we have to do the right thing - and fix the energy generation issues - not throw money to relieve our consciousness - how in the Bleep will your "conscious feeling better" help your children - If you are not part of the solution - please don't breed."

I heard a group of current Billionaires in an interview about "clean energy commitment" and the speakers stated (paraphrased):

'If the trillions on forced spending in this area (Wind, Solar, Ethnol) was used to develop a new reliable sustainable clean energy solution - our corporations would willingly spend on innovation and development for a real solution - stop using legislation to force us to waste money in the wrong direction - it prevents the funding of real solutions."

The Point was made - if the "solution" is a real solution - clean reliable affordable energy generation who wouldn't want it - the Billionaire "push back" was because of the Elephant - intermittent is a reliable solution - so governments gave subsidy to the Billionaires and they shut up. 

I am 53, and I lived through the promotion of Wind and Solar - the claim made in the beginning - we have to tax and subsidize to create a market and manufacturing so that the infrastructure is in place. An American president ran on the policy that he would force people to pay such high prices on polluting energy generation that the people would demand the then comparably less expensive solar and wind. Recall the Mafia - pay us or we will make it hurt...

The wealthy nations cheered - gave him a Nobel prize - but when he took his idea to the struggling nations - they told him where to stick it...

That is how you sell a bad solution... raise the costs to make the failed solution appear to hurt less... Mafia

10 years ago I met with four local utility companies, two senators, and engineers about the issue of "Alternative energy" At that time the utility had a position of protecting the cost and reliable power to consumers, and to do so required reducing damage and obstruction of their process - they fought the forced adaption of alternatives - three years later the same meeting was fierce - regarding transparency of alternative energy costs being hidden and who would be liable if the people were to find out they were padding electric bills, and then recently I met with the same group - they now love alternative energy - the utility was provided legal protection and subsidy had become a new profit line on the budget.

Did you catch that - the root issue was - who would be help responsible for adding new taxes to the energy bills - and then sweetened the deal with a additional subsidy income (used to be called "a pay off").  

Is that the best we as Mankind can do, Shame on all the Idiots who say - carbon tax is a solution, shame on the politicians that provide hope and not solutions, shame on the leaders who join the game to be in the cash flow.

Green Hydrogen could be a powerful benefit to mankind - if the energy produced to generate the hydrogen is both clean and economical.   

Another Elephant in the room - Innovation - physics has pushed itself into a corner - they surmised from a  steam engine in the 1800's that energy can not be created or destroyed - and they hold that belief harder than many hold onto their faith. This idea limited their thinking to two methods of energy utilization "conversion and consumption".  The only solutions physics offers is limited to those two methods - and they have failed mankind.

Green Hydrogen can assist a viable clean energy solution, and its not about the funding; 

1 .Energy is the economics of the World - the resources for an economically viable solution is unlimited.

2. Innovative energy generation exceeding 1800's physics has been developed - no consumption or conversion means reliable, affordable, and clean.

3. The cost of Green Hydrogen production can now be considered irrelevant - and thus be competitive on its own.   

4. Hydrogen can be motive, generative, and has excellent density values for transportation and shipping

So before we do any more feasibility studies on Green Hydrogen - start studying new technologies that have been developed... STOP sneaking around the Elephants in the room of 1800's psychics and 1900's alternative, intermittent, energy conversion systems...

We can change the World with new technology that has been developed - start leading and kick the Mafia out of your mentality and don't be afraid to admit the Elephant - that will help your children future. 

If you don't know how - call on me.

Wayne Travis    

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This thought leadership article was originally shared with Energy Central's Clean Power Community Group. The communities are a place where professionals in the power industry can share, learn and connect in a collaborative environment. Join the Clean Power Community today and learn from others who work in the industry.

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