The International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced a report entitled “Energy Technology Perspectives” to be released on July 2nd. The organization wants to present “innovations in the field of clean energy technologies” that are “particularly suitable for rapid transitions in the field of clean energy”. The stimulus measures discussed by many governments in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic offer “a unique opportunity to create jobs while supporting the transition to clean energy worldwide”.
Energy efficiency and renewable energies such as wind and solar energy – “the cornerstones of any transition to clean energies” – are good starting points for creating ecologically sustainable jobs and contributing to the revival of the global economy. Within a “broad portfolio of clean energy technologies,” battery and hydrogen technologies also “deserve a place in the economic stimulus packages being discussed today.” Both are modular technologies that are “potentially well suited for mass production.” Cost reductions, such as those achieved through the mass production of photovoltaics, are “not unthinkable and are already underway”. The expansion of the production of electrolysers is at an early stage. There is therefore a lot of scope for significant short-term cost reductions.
Electrolysers, devices that use electrical energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, are one way to produce clean hydrogen from low-carbon electricity, the agency said in a post. Clean hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels could be “critical to decarbonizing sectors where emissions are proving particularly difficult to reduce,” such as shipping, aviation, long-distance trucking, iron and steel steel industry or in the chemical industry.
However, natural gas and coal are currently the main sources of the approximately 70 million tons of hydrogen that are produced each year for the production of fertilizers and for use in oil refineries. The production and use of hydrogen is now linked to more than 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – according to the IEA, “an amount equivalent to the emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined”.
Deep link:
https://www.iea.org/articles/batteries-and-hydrogen-technology-keys-for-a-clean-energy-future
