“Yet I still don’t see how producing, processing, and storing hydrogen will ever produce more energy than it took to get it in a useable state.”
Windmills running at night when electricity demand is lowest? Use their electricity to make hydrogen. The oxygen can be sold off too as an industrial gas for welding. Medical uses too.
Solar panel farms are producing excess electricity? Store this energy as hydrogen. In the way mentioned in the above PM article. Ideally stored in modular, inter-changeable automobile batteries to replace lithium batteries. In say 20 years or so.
It is not the only problem with all these fantasy ideas of hydrogen production, storage, solar panel farms, windmills and other pipe dream renewalble processes... the problem is they are not ready now and we have been forced into an economy destroying condition of destroying and pricing beyond reach the available conventional sources we have now.
We are not only shooting ourselves in the foot, or rather the administration is, we are going for a good tight pattern with multiple shots so as to blow the foot clean off.
It still take more energy to produce useable hydrogen then the hydrogen produces. Sure use excess nuclear and unstable wind and solar but to make a “solid state” hydrogen with something that has the same energy as a 20 gallon tank of gasoline?
Well. The market will figure it out. But regardless, the watermelons will never let it happen. A scientist could find a way to create endless energy and they would always find an endangered termit that needs protected and shut down the system.