I didn't. I think he means 'and *you* mock *me*' in a more general sense implying that I am guilty of the same word-salad essays I sometimes make fun of him for.

@Mandatory Carry, if you have a 10,000 word essay regarding the hydrogen economy, *do the courtesy of linking to it* if you think it answers my questions.

I don't care what he thinks, I want to read the paper.

*"Short answers though, very little (solar)"*

Solar has high installation costs that put it above price parity with fossil fuels, and then you have to convert to hydrogen and compress or liquify the fuel, all of which are energy-lossy.

*"irrelevant since cars can't be connected to electrical lines (iirc I mocked that as "slot racers" in the first version)"*

Not irrelevant at all, since we are talking about *alternatives* to fossil-fuel vehicles; the other viable option is battery storage, with the power assumedly coming from the grid. So is it more system-efficient to send power to a battery over transmission lines, or to convert to liquid fuel at the source, pipe or truck it to a distribution center, fill a tank, then convert back to electricity in the car?

*"the same way we do now"*

You can't store hydrogen the way you store gasoline; it's not a liquid at STP. And it leaks out of normal containers by diffusion.

*"same as now (not an answer I know)"*

The same issues pertain to transport as storage.

*"tax breaks for volentry conversion"*

So taxpayers are footing the bill. OK.

*"no."*

So it's not a solution to anything, is basically what I'm getting...

@uncephalized in my opinion, hydrogen fuel cells will be more of a niche application and maybe for commercial flight. That’s about it. The economics are tough for hydrogen.

I agree @Salacious Swanky Cat . There is an eletricity-to-liquid-fuel strategy that makes sense, and it's synthesizing *hydrocarbons* in order to make gasoline and diesel carbon-neutral. Then we can just keep using the existing fleet of vehicles until they reach the end of their natural lifespans and get replaced by the much more affordable and high-performing batteries we'll have in 10-15 years.

There's a bunch of research going into direct air capture of CO2 to produce synthetic gasoline, using an arbitrary energy source (solar works fine). It looks really promising.

And it neatly solves the intermittency and storage issue. The infrastructure is already there. Just have to get it at price parity with fossil oil, which last I heard is not far off. And of course if fuel prices rise it instantly becomes more attractive.

@uncephalized are you talking about carbon capture?

Yes. Direct-air carbon capture.

to be zero emissions?

The emissions come from whatever energy source is used to produce the fuel.

So if you use a zero-emission source, the cycle is net-zero emissions.

will this slake the environmentalists?

i imagine not

No, because they are in a cult that requires doomsday.

ha

I don't care about that, I care about solving the actual problem.

but it is "better for the planet?"

In my opinion, yes.

i realize a hyper simplistic question

Regardless of what you think about global warming, we can't use fossil fuel forever anyway. Eventually the price will rise as we run out of accessible reserves.

This technology could represent a smooth ramp onto a different fuel source.

whoa whoa whoa

I think you mean cLiMaTe ChAnGe

XD

Sorry, I don't speak eco-commie

(Actually I'm fluent in it, I just choose not to)

gotta be nowadays

I used to be one.

👀

and then ypu got redpilled?

proverbially of course

Yeah I realized I was in a cult

so you red-pilled yourself? that takes a kind of self-awareness and humility that is rare nowadays

It was a slow process

The Trump election was a sort of psychological crisis moment for me where a whole bunch of stuff started coming together that had been bothering me

I had also recently become a parent, I was getting started in small business, just a general growing up process

A whole bunch of life-changing stuff happened to me over the course of a couple of years that forced me to reevaluate my viewpoint

Then Trump got elected, which I was totally convinced was not going to happen and I really realized consciously, once I got over the shock, that I didn't understand what was actually going on.

That I'd been in a bubble and needed to find a broader perspective. Which I've been working on since.