Hydrogen is the new frontier of energy, but we must not think that the road is all roses and flowers. A government report just published in London provides numbers in an optimistic key, which however can also be read in another light. It states that in the United Kingdom the transition to hydrogen can unlock investments for 4 billion pounds (ie 4.69 billion euros at the current exchange rate), creating 9,000 new jobs by 2030.
Sounds good. But on balance, the investment is 520 thousand euros for each job. It is not easy to find economic sectors where the capital intensity is higher.
Furthermore, this very strong investment would not serve a to produce energy, but only a to commute in hydrogen the energy produced in another way, the cost of which must be added to that of the transformation into hydrogen. In fact, hydrogen is not a primary source of energy, because it does not exist in the free state in nature in a usable form, it must be produced by consuming energy and economic resources.
It can be hoped that after 2030 the diffusion of hydrogen technology will lead to economies of scale that will reduce the amount of further investments gradually required. The British study estimates that in 2050, when this technology is mature, the hydrogen sector in the UK will generate an annual economic value of 13 billion pounds (i.e. 15.23 billion euros at the current exchange rate) by employing 100,000 people. . Thus, each of these workers will produce more than € 150,000 per year (we are now talking about per capita production, not per capita investment). It is a high production, but to get there colossal sums will have to be invested between now and 2050 to build from scratch or to adapt the plants to produce hydrogen, the network to transport it and the equipment capable of using it. And all this, we reiterate, does not replace but adds to the need to produce the primary energy to be transformed into hydrogen elsewhere, with the associated costs.
It will be done. But it won’t be a walk in the park.