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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

> wind and solar energy can provide the electricity to power homes and electric cars, green hydrogen could be an ideal power source for energy-intensive industries like concrete and steel manufacturing

It's not a power source. It's a different battery. The sun is still the source in these cases.

Nothing works as well as reducing consumption and demand. While we'll always need power, we should always at least mention the higher goal of reducing demand.

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>It's not a power source. It's a different battery.

It's also (sort of) equivalent to exporting oil, in a sense. Some country recieves it by ship, pumps it into a tank, and uses it as a source of energy.

Obviously it's generated from cheap electricity rather than pumping geological deposits, but I suspect that hydrogen will displace LNG.

I don't think any government has reducing demand on its radar. They all promise a green future without consumers having to change their behaviour one iota.

The british government has had many energy saving initiatives by increasing home insulation, energy saving light bulbs and their ilk, which have been pushed for at least 20 years.

That's energy efficiency, which is not the same as reducing demand - it's Jevon's paradox all over again. Decreasing the cost of various energy uses results in people being less worried about using them, and using them more as a result. Plus, saving money and improving the economy increases energy use in general (not to imply that improving the economy is in itself a bad that).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

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