Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

With the development of hydrogen, it is not clear exactly which scenario will be best. Will it be ideal for long-distance trucking or suitable for storage so it can help to balance electricity grids when the wind is low? Will it be appropriate for the heating of homes and directly replacing gas in those homes?

There are different use cases which have to be tried out and which have to be economically sound. Hydrogen will be appropriate in some circumstances and inappropriate in others. It has challenges and it is a new technology but it has the potential to balance out the fundamental variability in renewable energy where the production is related to what the weather is at the time. It also allows us to avoid the volatility and variability that comes with relying on the international price of fossil fuels, which can vary. At one point a barrel of oil was $10 and then at another point it was $140. It is hard for any country to deal with that and it has direct consequences for people. Hydrogen allows us to move towards sustainability, self-reliance and a clean energy supply.

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