The Economist Begins to Support the Hydrogen Economy

The Economist has been a leading publication of economic and world news for well over 120 years, and itsreporting on the various affairs of this world is some of the best. However, when it has come to hydrogen and fuel cells The Economist almost always leftitsreaders wanting. In 2021 only a handful of articles were produced by the publication that touched on hydrogen, and most of them only mentioned hydrogen because of its significant use in the 2021 Olympics in Japan.

However, it seems that Russia’s war on Ukraine has given the publication cause to rethink things, because in a recent article titled “Power struggle,” which appeared in the issue that covered the last week of June, the magazine stated “[h]ydrogen stripped from water with renewable electricity, or from natural gas with steam in facilities that store the emissions, may be crucial here.” Itwas perhaps the first time The Economist publicly advocated so prominently for hydrogen’s use in the world’s economy.

In a second article within the same issue titled “Hungry and angry” the publication further indirectly supported the use of hydrogen bystating that, “[a]lso, far less grain should be wastefully burned as biofuel.” Biofuels have been touted over the past two decades as one of the best ways to begin decarbonizing the global economy. However, to argue for significantly reducing the amountof biofuel produced means that the only option available is hydrogen.

Taken together the statements from The Economist are a significant departure from its previous stance of largely ignoring hydrogen and fuel cells. While Russia’s war on Ukraine may have pushed the magazine into the hydrogen and fuel cell camp, it did not help in 2020 when the price of a barrel of oil went negative for the first time ever. Nor did it help when about a year and half later the price of oil went up to about . Such volatility is damaging to small and large organizations, and creates an atmosphere that makes it difficult for most consumers to plan for the future.

However, as more people and organizations push for the change to a hydrogen economy the world’s present economy will begin to decouple from the volatility of fossil fuels. It will also enable countries to secure energy independence, and it will allow local communities to address social justice issues related to pollution. Ask almost any FCEV owner and the person will tell you that driving a FCEV is way more fun than driving a clunky vehicle with a dirty internal combustion engine. Of course, perhaps the most significant benefit will be a healthier Earth.

While Horizon Educational definitely is encouraged to seemore organizations globally embrace hydrogen and fuel cells, we have been advocatingfor the use ofhydrogen fuel cellssince 2013! Not only dowe have one of the largest educational product offerings of fuel cells and other renewable product, we also offer solutionsfor use in a wide range of commercial and industrial applications. Whether a person is looking for a fun project with a 5kW fuel cell stack or a company is looking to accelerate its transition to eco-friendly power sources using a 40kWfuel cell stack, we can help with both!And, of course, Horizon Educational’s H2GP program continues to be the only FCEV racing series in the world!