The Hydrogen Economy
by Jeremy Rifkin

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Book Reviews of The Hydrogen Economy

Book Review: a disappointing effort on a fascinating topic
Summary: 2 Stars

The book makes passing reference to the Lovins' work but then fails to pursue the radical energy efficiency agenda that is the cornerstone of that work. Readers would do well to read Natural Capitalism for a fuller explaination of this area.

Rifkin also relies heavily on current world events insofar as his analysis of world faiths goes. I suspect that there are people in most, if not all, faiths who would reject Rifkin's hypothesis that Islam is the only faith that represents a whole way of life. However, removing that strand of arguement would undermine a key chapter of the book.

Rifkin states that everyone will become an autonomous supplier of fuel in this new age. However, he does not suggest where the necessary power will come from to refine Hydrogen from water. Indeed, he states that current world production of Hydrogen (including, I presume a large chunk using oil energy) is 10% of current oil demand - thus a 1,000% increase in hydrogen refining capacity is required, to be powered by an even greater increase in renewables.

He then goes on to acknowledge that hydrogen is merely a carrier of energy. As such, is only one of many technologies, e.g. flywheels or chemical batteries, that might be used for that purpose. If every citizen posessed the capacity and the power supply to split water then they would be better off using it to light and heat their own homes directly instead of selling hydrogen into the marketplace.

Rifkin has the disadvantage of not knowing what the future holds and clearly has to make a coherent arguement. However, it is unfortunate that the breadth of options for the future management of world energy demand is not better explored - perhaps a review of the book in ten years time will be the best test.

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