The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth

The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth Jeremy Rifkin Date: 01 August, 2003   —   $10.17   —   Book product page Rating:

This is the book I was looking for when I picked up "The End of Oil". Where that book narrowly covered the current state of oil production and presented a survey of alternative energy sources, Rifkin's book presents the subject with scope and vision.

It turns out that oil production can be represented as a bell curve known as Hubbert's Curve. Rifkin reiterates the fact that we'll hit the worldwide peak of the curve within the next twenty years. After that point, production of oil will soon begin to decline, even as demand for oil increases dramatically in the developing world (China, India). Oil will become increasingly expensive, and while some amount of oil will still be produced, most people won't be able to afford petroleum-based energy like electricity, gasoline, and heating oil.

Rifkin applies thermodynamics, specifically the Second Law of Thermodynamics, to the energy usage of human societies. It's interesting, but also obvious. As the supply of oil decreases - falls out of equilibrium with usage - we expend ever growing amounts of energy to bring supply back into balance with demand. Rifkin argues that we are already spending far more energy to stabilize Middle East oil production than we get back. He also points out two other problems with our oil-based economy: Islamic fundamentalism and climate change.

The oil-based civilization, the most successful energy regime in all of human history, is just a few short years away from the turning point. The paths of three defining forces are quickly converging, forcing society to make decisions about what steps to take to ensure the future. The interplay between the imminent peak of global oil production, the increasing concentration of the remaining oil reserves in the Middle East (the most politically and socially unstable region of the world), and the steady heating up of the world's atmosphere from the spent energy - or entropy - accumulated over the course of the Industrial Age make for a volatile and dangerous world game, one who's outcome at this stage remains very much in doubt.

So with that as a setup, the rest of the book is all about vision. Rifkin makes the point that, while hydrogen needs to be generated using some kind of energy,

A renewable energy future is made far more difficult, if not impossible, without using hydrogen as a means for energy storage. That's because when any form of energy is harnessed to produce electricity, the electricity flows immediately. So if the sun isn't shining, or the wind isn't blowing, or the water isn't flowing, or fossil fuels are not available to burn, electricity can't be generated and economic activity grinds to a halt. Hydrogen is one very attractive way to store energy to ensure an ongoing and continuous supply of power for society.

Once we start using hydrogen for energy storage and power generation, an amazing thing happens. Since hydrogen can be created anywhere from just about any energy source, anyone can produce hydrogen. With a small windmill in the backyard or some solar panels on the roof, you can be a micro-power generator. Rifkin states, "The consequences of connecting every owner of a fuel-cell micro-power plant with every other owner in an energy-sharing network will be as profound and far-reaching as was the development of the World Wide Web in the 1990s." Where the Internet fostered a decentralization of knowledge, the Hydrogen Energy Web could foster a decentralization of societies and economies "that would promote both the values of self-sufficiency and interdependence."

Rifkin reminds us that the end of oil presents us with the opportunity to create an even better and more prosperous society than we now enjoy - if we start to create it NOW. If we wait too long, we may be forced into a self-destructive energy economy (coal, shale oil, tar sand) because we're desperate to keep the lights on and the refrigerator running.

There's a good article about the hydrogen economy on HowStuffWorks.com. And here's the Apollo Alliance, "a broad coalition within the labor, environmental, business, urban, and faith communities in support of good jobs and energy independence." Make it happen.