Hydrogen Benefits
Hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic resources, with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Once produced, it generates power without exhaust emissions in fuel cells. It holds promise for economic growth in both the stationary and transportation energy sectors.
Increasing Energy Security
The United States imports more than 60% of its petroleum, two-thirds of which is used to fuel vehicles in the form of gasoline and diesel. The demand for petroleum imports is increasing. With much of the worldwide petroleum reserves located in politically volatile countries, the United States is vulnerable to supply disruptions.
No matter how efficient conventional vehicles become, some of the gasoline and diesel needed to fuel them will need to be imported. Hydrogen can be produced domestically from resources such as natural gas, coal, solar energy, wind, biomass, and nuclear energy. Used to power highly efficient fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen holds the promise of an end to the nation's "addiction to oil." View President George W. Bush's January 2006 State of the Union Speech related to this topic.
Protecting Public Health and the Environment
About half of the U.S. population lives in areas where air pollution levels are high enough to negatively impact public health or the environment. Emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles—such as nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter—are a major source of this pollution. Hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles emit none of these harmful substances. Their only emission is H2O—water.
The environmental and health benefits are even greater when hydrogen is produced from low- or zero-emission sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear energy and fossil fuels with advanced emission controls and carbon sequestration. Because the transportation sector accounts for about one third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change, using these sources to produce hydrogen for transportation can slash greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about Hydrogen Emissions.
Fueling the Economy
The potential market for hydrogen vehicles is enormous, but the opportunities don't stop there. Hydrogen and fuel cells can power stationary applications such as backup generators, and grid electricity production. They can also compensate for the intermittency of renewable energy production. For example, wind generators can produce hydrogen when winds are high and electricity demand is low (learn more by going to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Wind to Hydrogen page). When the wind slackens or electricity demand peaks, fuel cells consume the stored hydrogen to provide grid electricity.
The United States stands to profit from hydrogen technologies. A recent study projected global annual demand for stationary and transportation fuel cell products to reach $46 billion by 2011 and more than $2.5 trillion by 2021. Government and industry investment in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies has positioned the United States as a leader in this rapidly growing market.
For more about the benefits of hydrogen, visit Hydrogen.gov and the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies Web site.