Experts are divided on role of carbon capture in net zero world
A revised report downplays hydrogen’s role in net zero, predicting that carbon capture will fill the gap in tough industries. Not everyone is convinced.
Forecasting the pace of adoption for technologies underpinning the energy transition — such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) — has always been incredibly fraught.
Opinions are divided on how quickly these technologies will step in to provide backup power generation during periods of sustained low wind and solar output, as well as in transitioning hard-to-abate industries off coal and gas.
In its annual New Energy Outlook released this week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has tracked rising optimism about hydrogen replacing coal and gas in industries as diverse as chemicals, steelmaking and transport, while also displacing piped gas in distribution networks and gas-fired electricity turbines.
However, as BNEF analysts discovered when crunching the numbers for this year’s report, hydrogen’s potential as a “silver bullet” technology to replace fossil fuels appears to have been significantly overstated.
