November 2004

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A British economist says changing over every American vehicle to hydrogen power would require so much electricity - presumably for electrolysis - that the United States would have to build enough wind turbines to cover half of California or 1,000 additional nuclear power plants. Andrew Oswald, an economist from the University of Warwick, says these calculations are intended to highlight the difficulties the U.S., and presumably every other nation, would face in converting to a truly green hydrogen economy. These numbers are “useful to make people realize what an enormous problem we face,” Oswald says, according to an Oct. 7 report on the Internet service “news@nature.com” citing calculations which Oswald and his brother Jim, an energy specialist, published in the British “Accountancy” magazine. The United Kingdom uses only one-tenth the amount of energy for transport than what’s needed in the United States, but a hydrogen switch would still require 100,000 wind turbine, covering an area greater than Wales. Source: www.nature.com/news/.