Yep. When you're using the energy quickly, within days or weeks, then hydrogen is extremely impractical.

The merits of hydrogen are in long term storage and cycles. A well built storage tank can last a lifetime. To be fair, a poorly built one might not last a year... So it's very dependent on the external factors involved.

Batteries have their flaws, which I think we all know by now. Weight (regardless of state of charge), volume (energy density), charging speed, cycle life, etc.

It's all about the application. Is the energy storage method going to be efficient for the desired outcomes.

Regardless of what other outcomes are in play, one that should be constant is to preserve the environment. Lithium technologies have reached a high level of development in recycling, so, for the most part, the environmental impact of end-of-life batteries is effectively mitigated to a large extent. This is a great thing that we have developed.

We need to do the same with solar PV panels, and mitigate as much of the environmental impact as we can from that as well. I know that's something that's being worked on, but we're not at the same level of efficiency as we are with batteries, probably due to the comparatively long life of PV panels, vs the comparatively short lifetime of lithium cells. We've simply had a lot more lithium to deal with and find ways to recycle, so far. I'm sure PV panels recycling will come along as more early adopters upgrade to something newer, and more panels get into the stage where they need to be recycled. I haven't checked in on PV panel recycling in a while so I'm not sure how outdated my information is.

To be clear, I am not, have not, and would never suggest that we move all our efforts into any technology, including, but not limited to, lithium, solar, wind, hydrogen, or anything else that's been discussed. IMO, we need to leverage several technologies to achieve our long-term goal of global net zero, while meeting the energy demands of everyone.

I just feel like hydrogen is treated like a dead end technology, and I can't blame the public for thinking so. A lot of the information about it as an energy storage solution is either very old, or still in its infancy. From electrolysis, which is a very old idea, to hydrogen fuel cells, which are extremely new by comparison. IMO, there's a lot of work that can be done here, and we need to keep looking into it. Maybe it goes nowhere, maybe it becomes so practical that other solutions seem like shit by comparison. I don't think either of those is likely, we'll probably land somewhere in the middle of those extremes. I don't know, and I'm not a scientist, so I'm just hoping we, as a society of people, keep working on it.

One thing I'm particularly excited for in this field is solid state batteries. But that's also in its infancy. I know a lot of work is being done on them, so we'll see what happens.

My point, if I have any point at all, is that we need to keep researching varied technologies for it. While solid state might be the right answer for EVs, and cellphones and most consumer electronics, they might not be the best solution for other applications. We need answers to energy demands of all sorts and giving up on something like hydrogen when there's still research to be done, isn't a great idea. We don't know what researching a technology could uncover. Maybe an air battery that's hyper efficient and has a high energy density, better than solid state technologies could hope to achieve. Maybe a lot of things. We just don't know.

Let's try everything and figure out what works for what application.

There's certainly costs involved with solar. Even the act of cleaning the panels is going to increase maintenance costs. More panels to clean, more cost. More space needed for the panels, more cost. It might not be much per panel, but it's still a cost. The wear of the panels is more cost, they only last so long before they degrade, and replacements are not free, so if the panels degrade without doing a lot of "work" (aka the outcome of having them) vs the cost of installing and maintaining them, was it worth it? These are all economic questions that also need to be considered.

Yes, it's not free, but it's the closest thing to "free" power we have. Literally pennies for gigawatt hours of output. If that power isn't consumed, then it wasn't useful to produce. Whether that generated power goes into batteries, homes, or hydrogen production, that's going to be something we have to solve for.

I see a hydrogen reactor + fuel cell "generator" as a secondary storage system to batteries. When production is unusually high, push the power into hydrogen. It's not nearly as efficient, but it can be stored for much longer without losing any. It can be stored far more densely than what can be accomplished by batteries. If the batteries are full and your PV plant is still pouring out unused watts, rather then let that energy go to waste, pushing it into hydrogen storage is a better option. If you don't need it for 6 months, a year, two years? No big deal. When production is low and your batteries are almost out, just fire up the fuel cell and recharge from the excess energy you couldn't put in the batteries. It's inefficient, yes, but bluntly, it's better than letting any of the excess production go to waste.

There's other competing technologies for the same purpose. I see hydrogen as the second stage of storage. It's not as good as the first stage, but it's better than turning to fossil fuels to generate power.

I don't know if that's the right answer to the problem. I don't know if it's even a good idea. All I know is that it is possible. IMO, it's not a bad idea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if I'm saying anything at all here, it's that we need to keep researching everything. I don't want anyone to drop research on another technology to dedicate to hydrogen, just as I wouldn't want anyone to drop hydrogen to research something else. We need to keep looking into this stuff.

There's no single solution to our energy needs, as of right now. I don't see one emerging in our lifetimes. The only goal I want to see pursued, if not obtained, is net zero for climate change. Stop the destruction of the environment, especially, but not limited to, our energy needs. Whatever gets us there, whether hydrogen, nuclear, fusion, solid state, flywheel, heat storage, thermoelectric, geothermal, hydroelectric, or whatever... I'm game. I feel like hydrogen still has a lot of discoveries that can be made, and I really don't want to see it abandoned because of a lack of popularity in the consumer space. It's there, it's green, it's got potential, let's keep trying to get it to a place where it can be beneficial, just like with everything else in that market segment.