Hydrogen has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a clean energy future, and it is likely to become a more popular renewable energy source in the years to come.
OVER the years, as nations began realising the severity of the effects from climate change, the push for renewable energy has seen a slew of different technologies being considered as solutions.
The United Nations (UN) listed six commonly used renewable energy sources, the first being solar power followed by wind energy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean energy and bioenergy.
Among these is a rising contender, which is hydrogen.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the global installed capacity of solar and wind power reached 942GW and 786GW, respectively, in 2021.
In contrast, the global installed capacity of hydrogen electrolysers was only 0.7GW, which shows that solar and wind power are currently much more popular than hydrogen.
This can be attributed to the high cost of production, the lack of infrastructure and safety concerns. Nonetheless, it is a promising renewable energy source.
Stacking up for the nation
Hydrogen has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a clean energy future, and it is likely to become a more popular renewable energy source in the years to come.
Its popularity is expected to increase as the cost of production decreases in the coming years once the proper infrastructures are developed.
In June of this year, the state of Sarawak announced that it has plans to make headway on several fronts into a green hydrogen economy with two facilities expected to be operationalised by 2027.
The state capital Kuching plans to install an urban transportation structure starting 4Q25 that uses a hydrogen-powered autonomous rapid transit system — a hybrid of train, bus and tram.
Then on Sept 27, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang announced that the first hydrogen fuel stations and public buses are expected to be operational in the peninsula next year.
A promising resource
Projections from IRENA show that the global installed capacity of hydrogen electrolysers will reach 85GW by 2030. That is an indication that hydrogen is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
The reason why hydrogen could take centrestage is because of its potential of being a clean, versatile and storable energy carrier.
Hydrogen produces zero emissions, making it a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
And like fossil fuels, it can be used in a variety of ways that includes for transportation, power generation and industrial applications.
As a testament to its versatile nature, hydrogen can be stored in tanks, as compressed gas or even in liquid form.
This makes it highly efficient as form of storage, with the ability of packing surplus solar or hydropower energy for later usage.
Hydrogen is mostly produced through electrolysis — by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using an electric current.
If the electricity used in this process is generated using a renewable source like solar, wind and water, then the hydrogen is considered green.
Hydrogen created in Sarawak is generated from the state’s abundant hydropower, which makes it a green resource.
To use hydrogen for powering an electric transport requires a fuel cell to help it combine with oxygen.
This causes a reaction that releases electricity, with heat and water as byproducts, which demonstrates the element’s potential as a viable zero-emission fuel resource.
The fuel cells are highly scalable, which makes it ideal for generating energy vast enough to run a powerhouse or small enough to charge a laptop.
Hydrogen fuel cells are also useful in remote locations due to their lack of moving parts, which translates as being highly reliable and unlikely to fail.
A hydrogen powered vehicle drives in the the same range as fossil fuels (around 480km), which is far better than EVs.
Expensive endeavour
There are however certain barriers to overcome when it comes to using hydrogen as a renewable resource, chief of which is the cost of producing hydrogen.
For a state like Sarawak, which taps into its hydropower energy source for hydrogen production, the cost of production can be kept reasonably lower.
However, in its current technological state, hydrogen production relies on electrolysis, a process that is expensive and highly energy intensive.
In the absence of renewables, extraction is typically done by the aid of fossil fuels. If this process disregards carbon capture and storage, the resultant product cannot claim to be green.
In addition, building fuel cells that convert the hydrogen into usable energy is also expensive as compared to solar power cells or wind turbines.
That is because rare metals such as platinum and iridium are required as catalysts for the conversion.
Vehicles that run on hydrogen are even more expensive than the current crop of battery-powered EVs, which is fast becoming a standard in green mobility.
At the moment hydrogen-powered vehicles tend to be larger and used in commercial settings, such as trains and aeroplanes, rather than being privately owned.
Then there is the issue of safety. Hydrogen is highly flammable and corrosive, even more than fossil fuels. Safety concerns associated with its production, transportation and use would need to be considered at every stage of implementation.
Even so, hydrogen has quite good prospects should the costs for creating the resource and its fuel cells fall as more economies adopt it, as Sarawak, and now Peninsula Malaysia, have.
This could even be due to the emergence of new technologies of hydrogen creation and synthesis. As the demand for clean energy sources increases in the bid to achieve nett zero, especially in transportation, hydrogen could very well play an increasingly pivotal role in the future.
