How Green Hydrogen Could End The Fossil Fuel Era | Vaitea Cowan | TED

We're going on a field trip together. We're going back to middle school, to chemistry class. Do you remember this? It was an experiment
we did with salt water, a battery and two pencils. Guess what? The reaction you witnessed then
is a key to tackling climate change. Yes, at 14 years old, we already knew. And today, we have the means to replace
fossil fuels with green hydrogen. Let's walk through this. The experiment I'm alluding to
is called water electrolysis.

And it is a way to create hydrogen. On Earth, hydrogen is found in the greatest
quantities in water: H2O. And when you use renewable electricity
to split water into H and O, that's green hydrogen. And the device creating this reaction
is called an electrolyzer. There are other colors
of hydrogen out there, but they use fossil fuels. So we're not going to talk
about those today, they'll only make climate change worse. We are talking about green hydrogen, which is 100 percent clean. And the quickest path
to scaling green hydrogen is by mass producing electrolyzers. But first, why do we need green hydrogen? When we look at our global
energy consumption today, only 20 percent comes in the form
of electricity or electrons.

This means the remaining 80 percent
of our world's energy use is in the forms of molecules. And while the world
is making rapid progress in greening our electricity, we need to look towards
our molecules as well. Think about your industry, transport,
heating and cooling sectors. They're all powered by molecules. And yes, this means
largely by fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. We won't be able
to electrify all of our sectors. And here's why. Let's start with an example
from the industrial sector. Molecules create the reaction, not electrons. To make steel the old way
we first mine iron ore, then burn coal to remove
the oxygen from the iron mix. Seven to nine percent
of our world's CO2 emissions come from this process.

It's the coal that provides the molecule, creating the reaction
to get rid of the oxygen. Electrons can't do that. But what they can do is power the device
that creates green hydrogen. And this clean molecule
will create the reaction, attract the oxygen and emit only water in the process. So by changing the process, we can eliminate up to 95 percent
of our CO2 emissions. And today, major European
steel manufacturers are already building green
hydrogen-based steel production processes.

(Applause) That's just one of the countless
industrial processes, small and big, that need a molecule. Another example, let's say, that we can't use electricity
for everything-everything is weight. Take the aviation sector. An 80-passenger aircraft
flying on batteries. Kind of impossible. One would need more batteries
just to fly the battery. Hydrogen planes, though,
they're taking off emission-free. This is a 20-seater aircraft, and its commercial flights
are scheduled two years from now. And by 2026, we'll be welcoming the 80-seater. And these are just two examples of how we can end
our reliance on fossil fuels. The world is turning to green hydrogen because it is effectively coupling
those hard-to-decarbonize sectors with green electricity. An electrolyzer connected to solar
and wind power generation is transforming green electrons
into green molecules. Green hydrogen is transforming
our renewable electricity into an energy carrier
that is extremely versatile.

And today, this clean molecule
is already being used in a wide range of applications. It can be combusted directly as a fuel
and emits zero carbon emissions. It's also being turned
into hydrogen-derived fuels like green ammonia, green methanol, which can fuel global shipping. Green hydrogen is being stored
across seasons without losing energy, like here in the Alps. And it can then be used in a fuel cell
to create electricity emitting only water, like in this remote village in Malaysia. Hydrogen is one of the most
energy-dense molecules, and by mass it contains three times
as much energy than diesel. So you might be wondering, well, why aren't we using this
already everywhere? And so previously, the reason was
the cost of green electricity. But that's no longer the bottleneck. So what's the challenge? It's the speed, scale and cost of making
these green hydrogen generators.

Luckily, people are already working on making
green hydrogen a reality. Because to make green hydrogen
the fuel source of the future, it needs to be cheaper than fossil fuels. And this means electrolyzers are going to need to be
really, really cheap. We started Enapter in 2017 with this one goal in mind
and urgency in our hearts. And so we chose a means that is a bit different from how others
in the industry proceed. We turned to economic history for approaches that scaled fast
and reduced prices significantly. And the answer was clear. If you want to take a solution
around the globe as quickly as possible, you need to make it a standardized,
mass-produced commodity. A product that's easy to make and use. And so some believe
we need larger machines. But we believe the electrolyser
should be a standardized, mass-produced commodity. A product that can make green hydrogen
anywhere for anyone. So to better understand our approach,
let me draw an analogy. Up until the ’80s, mainframe computers, they were considered
the future of computing. They were huge and complex equipment, and they were designed
for businesses only.

Then came the PC, and at first people laughed and wondered: Why would we ever need
such a tiny computer? But ultimately, it disrupted the industry. And today, data centers, they use
blade servers, which is PC technology. Why? Because the PC became a compact, standardized and mass-producible product that was cheap to make, easy to build, and that could be used
in any kinds of context. It's time to do this with green hydrogen. To this end, Enapter is designing all
of its electrolyzers as products and not projects. At the heart of our electrolyser
is an electrolysis core generating green hydrogen, and it is the foundation
for all of our products. And we're taking these core stacks and other components of our electrolyzers
into mass production. And so instead of building
larger electrolyzers, we're building compact ones that can be combined to achieving
any hydrogen quantity needed. And we believe this is the quickest way
to scale green hydrogen and drive down its price.

And the next step is going into mass production. This is our campus. And it's going to be fully powered
by renewables, of course, and that's where we'll be tackling
speed, scale and cost. By focusing on one single core size, we can leverage massive economies of scale and drive down the price
of green hydrogen. Because that’s what it’s all about: making green hydrogen cheaper
than fossil fuels. We have the means to make green hydrogen
the fuel source of the future. It's time to listen
to our 14-year-old selves and the 14-year-olds of today. Our generation has a unique opportunity. It's time for the next
industrial revolution. We can build our world's energy
supplies sustainably, made of a lot of green electricity and a wave of green hydrogen molecules.

This is how we end the fossil fuel era. Thank you. (Applause).

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