Hercules Global Solutions
Comprehensive Plan to Mitigate Global Warming
Though climate change is an existential threat to life on Earth current efforts to combat it are woefully inadequate. If unable to limit global warming to 1.5 C the number of intense storms, fires, heatwaves, famines, and floods will significantly increase with a corresponding loss of life.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could reduce US Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 32 to 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. However, that is the easy part. What about the remaining 60 to 68 percent to get to Net Zero by 2050?
Solving global warming is a herculean task and the world needs a clean break from the past. Hercules Global Solutions is a startup with novel funding mechanisms and solutions to mitigate global warming.
Penalties of Scale
Even after passage of the IRA there is a long way to go. One of the most underappreciated problems is penalties of scale. Throwing more money at the problem can only go so far. The concept of economies of scale intuitively makes sense. For example, a factory making 100 widgets a year can ramp up to produce 1,000 widgets per year for a small investment in equipment and/or labor, lowering the marginal cost per widget. However, if the goal is to go to 10 million widgets per year, new factories need to be built and raw materials and skilled labor become very costly. Thus, the cost per widget actually goes up, not down. I term this “penalties of scale”. This has been seen with solar panels and wind turbines recently. By definition if you divide the percentage change in cost with the percentage change in output, and the result is less than one, then economies of scale exist. However, economies of scale at very large scales is poorly studied in the business literature. For example, some inputs may need to be increased by more than others and different inputs, besides having different relative costs, have differing nonlinear impacts on production. Given that penalties of scale exist, coordinated actions by businesses and government are necessary to remove production bottlenecks and strategic investment is necessary to increase supply of critical inputs such as copper and other raw materials.
Scalability Tables
A key aspect of every climate solution is scalability (i.e. can the technology scale effectively). For example, there is a huge amount of effort going into the development of higher and higher efficiency solar panels. While a technological marvel, if they cannot scale, they are useless. Nearly every week there is an announcement of some new technology that is purportedly of game changing importance. To help sift through this clutter, a database of every new technology would be maintained by Hercules. Upon introduction, and every January 1st and July 1st each technology would be rated on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of its scalability. Also in the database would be the cost per megawatt and the number of years before the technology can become commercially available. This table would be regularly updated and would be invaluable to researchers, investors, government officials, and the public at large. If a new truly scalable solution arises, Hercules will incorporate it into its activities, replacing older solutions. Scalability tables are key to efficient expenditure of time, money, and effort on vital technologies such as solar cells, electrolyzers, and battery technology.
Hercules addresses global warming strictly based on economics. It’s not just environmentalists who are sounding the alarm, banking giant Citibank estimates that unchecked global warming will cost the world $44 trillion by 2060. To put that in perspective, the total market capitalization of all US based public companies listed in the NYSE and Nasdaq was about $40.5 trillion as of December 31, 2022.
But the financial pain is not just something far off in the future, it is going on right now. For reference, in 2019 Property & Casualty (P&C) insurers in the US alone paid out $38.7 billion for property losses related to natural catastrophes, whereas in 2020 they paid out $81 billion. In 2021 they paid out over $93 billion. Natural disasters in 2022 brought global economic losses of $275 billion of which insurance covered 45% or $125 billion. The US accounted for 75% of those insured losses or $99 billion. I think you can see the trend here and we are only at 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming. It is hard to imagine what the world will be like at 1.5, 2, or 3 degrees C.
There are 5 more parts to my plan to mitigate global warming. They are: 1-Environmental Easing 2-CZTS utility-scale solar, 3-Rail Grid, 4-Long-term energy storage via hydrogen, and 5-Electrify Everything Efficiently.
Environmental Easing
The first and most important part is a new funding mechanism called Environmental Easing that is a new form of monetary policy. It is essentially a form of Quantitative Easing, but with an environmental focus. It is different than Green QE (GQE) in that Environmental Easing actively creates and funds targeted green companies and green initiatives throughout the world in a coordinated manner. In contrast Green QE relies on the market to create investment opportunities, which have widely varying quality, and leaves it up to individual central banks to make their own investment decisions which can lead to conflicting objectives and conflicts of interest. As you will read in this proposal, most of the heavy lifting to mitigate global warming will be financed through Environmental Easing, though the money would actually be allocated by new climate banks. A detailed discussion of Environmental Easing can be found on the Environmental Easing link in the header of this website.
CZTS solar
The second part is CZTS utility-scale solar. Given changing weather patterns, wind and hydroelectric power will be significantly below capacity, leaving only solar as the most dependable source of renewable energy. Thus, the second part of the plan focuses on utility-scale solar built in deserts and arid regions of the world. DESERTEC is a non-profit foundation that focuses on the production of renewable energy in desert regions. The foundation’s first idea was to focus on the transmission of renewable power from the sun rich Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to Europe. Unsurprisingly, it was a failure given its lofty ideas about the level of political cooperation possible between the countries in this region. Hercules instead focuses on meeting the needs of individual countries.
Most commercial solar PV modules use photovoltaic cells (solar cells) made from highly purified silicon (Si) because they have a relatively high efficiency. However, their production is terrible for the environment. Every step in their production requires an input of fossil fuels – as the carbon reductants needed for smelting silicon from quartz “ore”, to provide manufacturing process heat and power, and transportation.
In 2012 IBM achieved a world-record PV solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency of 11.1 percent for thin-film CZTS (Copper, Zinc, Tin, Sulfide) which can be manufactured by simple ink-based techniques such as printing and casting. Estimates of global material reserves (for Cu, Zn, Sn, and S) suggest we could produce enough energy to power the world with only 0.1% of the available raw material resources. These cells are also less affected by high temperatures and will lose only a small portion of their performance when it gets too hot. Thus, thin-film cells are recommended for use in deserts where there is plenty of sun and space. It is projected CZTS PV cells could potentially yield up to 500 GW of additional capacity per year. Yes, that’s a G as in gigawatts, not megawatts. Even if in the real world CZTS panels end up being 40% less efficient than under laboratory conditions, they could still yield 300 GW of additional green energy to the world each year. There is no other currently available solar technology which can scale to this level cost effectively. In fact there is no other form of renewable energy that can scale to this level.
The low efficiency of CZTS solar makes it less economical than silicon based solar. However, when penalties of scale are taken into account CZTS is actually much cheaper. Moreover, through Environmental Easing funding is not a limitation.
There is enough potential solar energy in arid states such as Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada to meet all the energy needs of the United States. However, that doesn’t preclude other states from installing their own CZTS utility-scale solar, if they have a lot of arid or otherwise unproductive land.
Presently, the world’s most powerful wind turbine is the Vestas V236 which can produce 15 MW. A prototype of this turbine has only recently produced its first kWh of power. The turbine will debut in 2024. Note that the Vestas 236 is also the world’s tallest turbine at 919 feet with 115.5 m long blades. Wind turbines used on land-based wind farms typically generate from 1 to nearly 5 megawatts. Using the largest of these, it would take 60,000 of the 5 MW wind turbines to produce 300 GW. Even if you use the Vestas turbines it would still require over 20,000 of these mammoth turbines to produce 300 GW. These numbers are far beyond those of any existing wind farm and would take many decades to deploy besides incurring massive penalties of scale.
Rail Grid
The third part of my solution is a Rail Grid. This refers to a type of electricity transmission network. Even if enough solar capacity is built via utility-scale solar, large numbers of HVDC transmission lines need to be built to transmit the power to where it is needed. Currently there is a massive backlog of 1,280,000 megawatts of green energy projects stuck waiting for grid connections in the United States. According to Bloomberg NEF, at least $21.4 trillion needs to be invested in the electricity grid by 2050 to support a net-zero trajectory for the world. This can only be adequately financed through Environmental Easing.
One of the biggest obstacles to reaching net zero is overcoming resistance to overhead HVDC transmission lines. Typically the utility needs to acquire hundreds of miles of easements from thousands of land owners and use the power of eminent domain if leases cannot be agreed upon. Moreover, negotiations with many local and state jurisdictions are necessary to secure project approval. The whole process can take many years to a decade or more, that is assuming the projects aren’t canceled due to public opposition. A much more promising alternative proposed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is construction of underground HVDC transmission lines located along existing rail corridors. Not only would a nationwide HVDC transmission network greatly aid efforts to address climate change, it would also improve grid stability and provide sustained economic development in rural areas across the country. Moreover, laying underground HVDC transmission lines alongside rail corridors only requires negotiation with the seven major American rail companies. The beauty of this approach is that it can be used in nearly every country in the world since rail lines are ubiquitous, even in very poor countries, and there is no visual pollution from unsightly transmission towers above ground.
Buried HVDC lines along other rights of way such as interstate highways have also been proposed, but they require navigating various jurisdictional ownership. Undergrounding HVDC lines would be more expensive than today’s predominantly overhead AC lines but the benefits would quickly cover the costs.
As a starting point each country would be assessed for its potential utility-scale solar. If its energy needs cannot be met by solar, the potential for wind energy will be evaluated. Taking the locations of both solar and wind resources into account, plans for an underground HVDC rail grid in each country would be developed. Next, other existing rights of way such as major roads and highways would be added to the underground grid. Finally, for areas where underground power lines are not feasible above ground transmission infrastructure will be planned. At strategically located DC converter stations along the rights of way, AC lines would radiate out like spokes to local AC distribution systems.
Note that it will take years to roll out CZTS solar. If a different solar technology that can scale more economically arises in the interim, it can be adopted going forward. What is essential is that the world plan for large scale solar projects so that the prime locations and electricity transmission infrastructure are in place whatever solar technology is ultimately used.
Closed-loop Hydrogen
The fourth part of my plan is long-term energy storage via hydrogen. Many electric grids today are set up to deal with power demand peaking in the summer, when air conditioners run full blast. But if electric heating becomes widespread, utilities will need to be able to handle surging demand in the winter when there is less solar power available. Currently, utilities stockpile vast quantities of natural gas underground for wintertime. I am proposing closed-loop green hydrogen as the long-term energy storage solution for much of the world, including the United States.
New research shows that leaky hydrogen infrastructure could end up increasing methane levels in the atmosphere with decades-long global warming consequences. The reason is that the hydroxyl radical (OH) plays a critical role in eliminating methane and ozone from the atmosphere. However, the hydroxyl radical also reacts with hydrogen gas to form water. Since a limited amount of OH is generated each day any increase in hydrogen emissions would decrease the amount of OH available to break down methane. Thus, methane would stay longer in the atmosphere extending its warming effects. Piping hydrogen to homes and businesses for heating and transporting liquid hydrogen will inevitably leak hydrogen into the atmosphere. Moreover, since electric heat pumps are far more efficient than burning hydrogen and electric cars are far more efficient than fuel cell powered cars there is no compelling case for a hydrogen economy as currently envisioned.
Closed-loop hydrogen is where excess renewable electricity is used to electrolyse water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, but the hydrogen would not be piped or liquified and transported to the point of use. The hydrogen would stay on site and be stored in large underground caverns for long duration and seasonal energy storage.
The hydrogen would be used to generate electricity when needed using fuel cells and the water generated would be collected and reused for electrolysis to generate hydrogen. The closed loop is water to hydrogen, back to water, back to hydrogen, …
This is the only feasible method of long-duration energy storage which can shift excess energy from periods of oversupply, like California in the spring, to periods of under supply, like California in the late summer.
Most people are already familiar with the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve which holds oil in salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. The Gulf Coast has sufficient salt dome potential to create a ‘Strategic Green Hydrogen Reserve’. Parts of Europe and the Middle East also have significant salt dome potential for green hydrogen storage.
Thus, Hercules will promote stationary closed-loop hydrogen for long term energy storage, particularly in regions of the world with significant salt dome potential, where hydrogen leaks are easier to prevent.
Note that much of the world doesn’t have salt dome potential to store hydrogen for seasonal energy storage. However, most of these areas are in the southern hemisphere, which tend to have milder winters and thus require less energy for heating. That includes areas such as South America, Africa, South Asia, and Australia. As discussed in the Novel Solutions page of this web site ammonia is one possible method of seasonal energy storage for these regions.
Electrify Everything
The fifth part of my plan is Electrify Everything Efficiently which conveys the necessity of decarbonizing everything in order to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
Note that widespread electrification faces huge obstacles. In the United States it would mean replacing more than 280 million gasoline-powered cars and 200 million home appliances that run on natural gas such as furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and dryers. In order to electrify everything, rather than just providing traditional subsidies, Hercules will channel funding to reduce input costs and remove production bottlenecks so that the final price to the end user for these appliances ultimately decreases. However, it is not enough to simply shift to electric machines if their electricity comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels. That is why the other four parts are critical. Once these parts are in place, gas fired appliances and gasoline powered cars can be phased out completely.
Energy efficiency is a proven cost-effective strategy to build economies without necessarily increasing energy consumption. For example, the state of California began implementing energy-efficiency measures in the 1970s, including building code and appliance standards with strict efficiency requirements. During the following years, California’s energy consumption has remained approximately flat on a per capita basis while national US consumption doubled. It is critical that as the rest of the world develops it does so in an energy efficient way. To do this, other countries can emulate the actions taken by California.
Taking all these factors into account the only plausible way for the US to reach Net Zero is massive CZTS utility-scale solar projects in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada; a massive build out of underground HVDC transmission infrastructure via a Rail Grid; a Strategic Hydrogen Reserve along the Gulf Coast that incorporates closed-loop hydrogen for long-term and seasonal energy storage; and once sufficient carbon free electricity is available, phase out and ultimately ban all gas fired appliances, which will be replaced by high efficiency electric appliances.
The atmosphere is a single continuous system that does not recognize national borders. Thus, in terms of carbon emissions, a cut anywhere is a cut everywhere. Decarbonization is a positive externality which will pay environmental dividends to the whole world.
Comprehensive Plan to Mitigate Global Warming
Though climate change is an existential threat to life on Earth current efforts to combat it are woefully inadequate. If unable to limit global warming to 1.5 C the number of intense storms, fires, heatwaves, famines, and floods will significantly increase with a corresponding loss of life.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could reduce US Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 32 to 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. However, that is the easy part. What about the remaining 60 to 68 percent to get to Net Zero by 2050?
Solving global warming is a herculean task and the world needs a clean break from the past. Hercules Global Solutions is a startup with novel funding mechanisms and solutions to mitigate global warming.
Penalties of Scale
Even after passage of the IRA there is a long way to go. One of the most underappreciated problems is penalties of scale. Throwing more money at the problem can only go so far. The concept of economies of scale intuitively makes sense. For example, a factory making 100 widgets a year can ramp up to produce 1,000 widgets per year for a small investment in equipment and/or labor, lowering the marginal cost per widget. However, if the goal is to go to 10 million widgets per year, new factories need to be built and raw materials and skilled labor become very costly. Thus, the cost per widget actually goes up, not down. I term this “penalties of scale”. This has been seen with solar panels and wind turbines recently. By definition if you divide the percentage change in cost with the percentage change in output, and the result is less than one, then economies of scale exist. However, economies of scale at very large scales is poorly studied in the business literature. For example, some inputs may need to be increased by more than others and different inputs, besides having different relative costs, have differing nonlinear impacts on production. Given that penalties of scale exist, coordinated actions by businesses and government are necessary to remove production bottlenecks and strategic investment is necessary to increase supply of critical inputs such as copper and other raw materials.
Scalability Tables
A key aspect of every climate solution is scalability (i.e. can the technology scale effectively). For example, there is a huge amount of effort going into the development of higher and higher efficiency solar panels. While a technological marvel, if they cannot scale, they are useless. Nearly every week there is an announcement of some new technology that is purportedly of game changing importance. To help sift through this clutter, a database of every new technology would be maintained by Hercules. Upon introduction, and every January 1st and July 1st each technology would be rated on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of its scalability. Also in the database would be the cost per megawatt and the number of years before the technology can become commercially available. This table would be regularly updated and would be invaluable to researchers, investors, government officials, and the public at large. If a new truly scalable solution arises, Hercules will incorporate it into its activities, replacing older solutions. Scalability tables are key to efficient expenditure of time, money, and effort on vital technologies such as solar cells, electrolyzers, and battery technology.
Hercules addresses global warming strictly based on economics. It’s not just environmentalists who are sounding the alarm, banking giant Citibank estimates that unchecked global warming will cost the world $44 trillion by 2060. To put that in perspective, the total market capitalization of all US based public companies listed in the NYSE and Nasdaq was about $40.5 trillion as of December 31, 2022.
But the financial pain is not just something far off in the future, it is going on right now. For reference, in 2019 Property & Casualty (P&C) insurers in the US alone paid out $38.7 billion for property losses related to natural catastrophes, whereas in 2020 they paid out $81 billion. In 2021 they paid out over $93 billion. Natural disasters in 2022 brought global economic losses of $275 billion of which insurance covered 45% or $125 billion. The US accounted for 75% of those insured losses or $99 billion. I think you can see the trend here and we are only at 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming. It is hard to imagine what the world will be like at 1.5, 2, or 3 degrees C.
There are 5 more parts to my plan to mitigate global warming. They are: 1-Environmental Easing 2-CZTS utility-scale solar, 3-Rail Grid, 4-Long-term energy storage via hydrogen, and 5-Electrify Everything Efficiently.
Environmental Easing
The first and most important part is a new funding mechanism called Environmental Easing that is a new form of monetary policy. It is essentially a form of Quantitative Easing, but with an environmental focus. It is different than Green QE (GQE) in that Environmental Easing actively creates and funds targeted green companies and green initiatives throughout the world in a coordinated manner. In contrast Green QE relies on the market to create investment opportunities, which have widely varying quality, and leaves it up to individual central banks to make their own investment decisions which can lead to conflicting objectives and conflicts of interest. As you will read in this proposal, most of the heavy lifting to mitigate global warming will be financed through Environmental Easing, though the money would actually be allocated by new climate banks. A detailed discussion of Environmental Easing can be found on the Environmental Easing link in the header of this website.
CZTS solar
The second part is CZTS utility-scale solar. Given changing weather patterns, wind and hydroelectric power will be significantly below capacity, leaving only solar as the most dependable source of renewable energy. Thus, the second part of the plan focuses on utility-scale solar built in deserts and arid regions of the world. DESERTEC is a non-profit foundation that focuses on the production of renewable energy in desert regions. The foundation’s first idea was to focus on the transmission of renewable power from the sun rich Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to Europe. Unsurprisingly, it was a failure given its lofty ideas about the level of political cooperation possible between the countries in this region. Hercules instead focuses on meeting the needs of individual countries.
Most commercial solar PV modules use photovoltaic cells (solar cells) made from highly purified silicon (Si) because they have a relatively high efficiency. However, their production is terrible for the environment. Every step in their production requires an input of fossil fuels – as the carbon reductants needed for smelting silicon from quartz “ore”, to provide manufacturing process heat and power, and transportation.
In 2012 IBM achieved a world-record PV solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency of 11.1 percent for thin-film CZTS (Copper, Zinc, Tin, Sulfide) which can be manufactured by simple ink-based techniques such as printing and casting. Estimates of global material reserves (for Cu, Zn, Sn, and S) suggest we could produce enough energy to power the world with only 0.1% of the available raw material resources. These cells are also less affected by high temperatures and will lose only a small portion of their performance when it gets too hot. Thus, thin-film cells are recommended for use in deserts where there is plenty of sun and space. It is projected CZTS PV cells could potentially yield up to 500 GW of additional capacity per year. Yes, that’s a G as in gigawatts, not megawatts. Even if in the real world CZTS panels end up being 40% less efficient than under laboratory conditions, they could still yield 300 GW of additional green energy to the world each year. There is no other currently available solar technology which can scale to this level cost effectively. In fact there is no other form of renewable energy that can scale to this level.
The low efficiency of CZTS solar makes it less economical than silicon based solar. However, when penalties of scale are taken into account CZTS is actually much cheaper. Moreover, through Environmental Easing funding is not a limitation.
There is enough potential solar energy in arid states such as Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada to meet all the energy needs of the United States. However, that doesn’t preclude other states from installing their own CZTS utility-scale solar, if they have a lot of arid or otherwise unproductive land.
Presently, the world’s most powerful wind turbine is the Vestas V236 which can produce 15 MW. A prototype of this turbine has only recently produced its first kWh of power. The turbine will debut in 2024. Note that the Vestas 236 is also the world’s tallest turbine at 919 feet with 115.5 m long blades. Wind turbines used on land-based wind farms typically generate from 1 to nearly 5 megawatts. Using the largest of these, it would take 60,000 of the 5 MW wind turbines to produce 300 GW. Even if you use the Vestas turbines it would still require over 20,000 of these mammoth turbines to produce 300 GW. These numbers are far beyond those of any existing wind farm and would take many decades to deploy besides incurring massive penalties of scale.
Rail Grid
The third part of my solution is a Rail Grid. This refers to a type of electricity transmission network. Even if enough solar capacity is built via utility-scale solar, large numbers of HVDC transmission lines need to be built to transmit the power to where it is needed. Currently there is a massive backlog of 1,280,000 megawatts of green energy projects stuck waiting for grid connections in the United States. According to Bloomberg NEF, at least $21.4 trillion needs to be invested in the electricity grid by 2050 to support a net-zero trajectory for the world. This can only be adequately financed through Environmental Easing.
One of the biggest obstacles to reaching net zero is overcoming resistance to overhead HVDC transmission lines. Typically the utility needs to acquire hundreds of miles of easements from thousands of land owners and use the power of eminent domain if leases cannot be agreed upon. Moreover, negotiations with many local and state jurisdictions are necessary to secure project approval. The whole process can take many years to a decade or more, that is assuming the projects aren’t canceled due to public opposition. A much more promising alternative proposed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is construction of underground HVDC transmission lines located along existing rail corridors. Not only would a nationwide HVDC transmission network greatly aid efforts to address climate change, it would also improve grid stability and provide sustained economic development in rural areas across the country. Moreover, laying underground HVDC transmission lines alongside rail corridors only requires negotiation with the seven major American rail companies. The beauty of this approach is that it can be used in nearly every country in the world since rail lines are ubiquitous, even in very poor countries, and there is no visual pollution from unsightly transmission towers above ground.
Buried HVDC lines along other rights of way such as interstate highways have also been proposed, but they require navigating various jurisdictional ownership. Undergrounding HVDC lines would be more expensive than today’s predominantly overhead AC lines but the benefits would quickly cover the costs.
As a starting point each country would be assessed for its potential utility-scale solar. If its energy needs cannot be met by solar, the potential for wind energy will be evaluated. Taking the locations of both solar and wind resources into account, plans for an underground HVDC rail grid in each country would be developed. Next, other existing rights of way such as major roads and highways would be added to the underground grid. Finally, for areas where underground power lines are not feasible above ground transmission infrastructure will be planned. At strategically located DC converter stations along the rights of way, AC lines would radiate out like spokes to local AC distribution systems.
Note that it will take years to roll out CZTS solar. If a different solar technology that can scale more economically arises in the interim, it can be adopted going forward. What is essential is that the world plan for large scale solar projects so that the prime locations and electricity transmission infrastructure are in place whatever solar technology is ultimately used.
Closed-loop Hydrogen
The fourth part of my plan is long-term energy storage via hydrogen. Many electric grids today are set up to deal with power demand peaking in the summer, when air conditioners run full blast. But if electric heating becomes widespread, utilities will need to be able to handle surging demand in the winter when there is less solar power available. Currently, utilities stockpile vast quantities of natural gas underground for wintertime. I am proposing closed-loop green hydrogen as the long-term energy storage solution for much of the world, including the United States.
New research shows that leaky hydrogen infrastructure could end up increasing methane levels in the atmosphere with decades-long global warming consequences. The reason is that the hydroxyl radical (OH) plays a critical role in eliminating methane and ozone from the atmosphere. However, the hydroxyl radical also reacts with hydrogen gas to form water. Since a limited amount of OH is generated each day any increase in hydrogen emissions would decrease the amount of OH available to break down methane. Thus, methane would stay longer in the atmosphere extending its warming effects. Piping hydrogen to homes and businesses for heating and transporting liquid hydrogen will inevitably leak hydrogen into the atmosphere. Moreover, since electric heat pumps are far more efficient than burning hydrogen and electric cars are far more efficient than fuel cell powered cars there is no compelling case for a hydrogen economy as currently envisioned.
Closed-loop hydrogen is where excess renewable electricity is used to electrolyse water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, but the hydrogen would not be piped or liquified and transported to the point of use. The hydrogen would stay on site and be stored in large underground caverns for long duration and seasonal energy storage.
The hydrogen would be used to generate electricity when needed using fuel cells and the water generated would be collected and reused for electrolysis to generate hydrogen. The closed loop is water to hydrogen, back to water, back to hydrogen, …
This is the only feasible method of long-duration energy storage which can shift excess energy from periods of oversupply, like California in the spring, to periods of under supply, like California in the late summer.
Most people are already familiar with the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve which holds oil in salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. The Gulf Coast has sufficient salt dome potential to create a ‘Strategic Green Hydrogen Reserve’. Parts of Europe and the Middle East also have significant salt dome potential for green hydrogen storage.
Thus, Hercules will promote stationary closed-loop hydrogen for long term energy storage, particularly in regions of the world with significant salt dome potential, where hydrogen leaks are easier to prevent.
Note that much of the world doesn’t have salt dome potential to store hydrogen for seasonal energy storage. However, most of these areas are in the southern hemisphere, which tend to have milder winters and thus require less energy for heating. That includes areas such as South America, Africa, South Asia, and Australia. As discussed in the Novel Solutions page of this web site ammonia is one possible method of seasonal energy storage for these regions.
Electrify Everything
The fifth part of my plan is Electrify Everything Efficiently which conveys the necessity of decarbonizing everything in order to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
Note that widespread electrification faces huge obstacles. In the United States it would mean replacing more than 280 million gasoline-powered cars and 200 million home appliances that run on natural gas such as furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and dryers. In order to electrify everything, rather than just providing traditional subsidies, Hercules will channel funding to reduce input costs and remove production bottlenecks so that the final price to the end user for these appliances ultimately decreases. However, it is not enough to simply shift to electric machines if their electricity comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels. That is why the other four parts are critical. Once these parts are in place, gas fired appliances and gasoline powered cars can be phased out completely.
Energy efficiency is a proven cost-effective strategy to build economies without necessarily increasing energy consumption. For example, the state of California began implementing energy-efficiency measures in the 1970s, including building code and appliance standards with strict efficiency requirements. During the following years, California’s energy consumption has remained approximately flat on a per capita basis while national US consumption doubled. It is critical that as the rest of the world develops it does so in an energy efficient way. To do this, other countries can emulate the actions taken by California.
Taking all these factors into account the only plausible way for the US to reach Net Zero is massive CZTS utility-scale solar projects in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada; a massive build out of underground HVDC transmission infrastructure via a Rail Grid; a Strategic Hydrogen Reserve along the Gulf Coast that incorporates closed-loop hydrogen for long-term and seasonal energy storage; and once sufficient carbon free electricity is available, phase out and ultimately ban all gas fired appliances, which will be replaced by high efficiency electric appliances.
The atmosphere is a single continuous system that does not recognize national borders. Thus, in terms of carbon emissions, a cut anywhere is a cut everywhere. Decarbonization is a positive externality which will pay environmental dividends to the whole world.