Hydrogen in the evolving energy system☆

Abstract

Abstract The energy system architecture is represented as a five link chain: services • service technologies • currencies • transformer technologies • sources. This architecture is the foundation for the ideas developed in the paper. The energy system is driven by services. People buy services, not energy. Moreover, both the generic function of each link and the generic services are constant. It is the technical realization of each link which evolves with time-and which provides a mosaic of opportunity. After introducing this evolving architecture, the paper covers issues like rate-of-change, external forces and, most important, the barriers and attractors to systemic evolution. Looking for barriers and attractors is a valuable strategy for finding both business and research opportunities. Systemic “patterns” are also identified, including how hydrogen and electricity will colonize different but synergistic markets—and provide much greater systemic flexibility in the deep future than we have today. An “energy service palette” is used to visualize the needs and opportunities embedded in the phrase “pioneering the Hydrogen Age.” Finally, in the last part of the paper, all of these issues are placed within the cadence of our developing planet—from civilization's (life's) first tentative steps towards space in the late 20th Century, to its need for environmental and economic protection at the cusp of the 20th/21st Centuries, and on to its presumed destiny—space colonization missions (Earthlet spores) late in the 21st Century. The purpose of both the WHEC Plenary Lecture, and this paper, is to illuminate opportunities: H2 systems opportunities for investors and corporations, and economic-cultural opportunity for nations.