Hydrogen is often considered a green energy source when it is produced using environmentally friendly methods and used in applications that produce little to no greenhouse gas emissions. This concept is often referred to as “green hydrogen.” Green hydrogen has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon energy system for several reasons: 

Clean Production: Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, or hydropower, to electrolyze water (H2O) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). This process, known as electrolysis, generates hydrogen without producing harmful emissions if the electricity used for electrolysis is sourced from renewables. 

Reduced Carbon Footprint: Green hydrogen production avoids the carbon emissions associated with traditional hydrogen production methods, such as steam methane reforming (SMR) and coal gasification, which release significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). 

Versatile Energy Carrier: Hydrogen can be used as an energy carrier for various applications, including electricity generation, transportation, and industrial processes. It can be stored and transported relatively easily, making it a flexible energy source. 

Decarbonizing Hard-to-Electrify Sectors: Hydrogen can be used in sectors that are difficult to electrify directly, such as heavy industry, long-haul transportation (e.g., trucks, ships, and trains), and certain chemical processes. By replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen in these sectors, emissions can be significantly reduced. 

Energy Storage: Hydrogen can be used for energy storage, helping to balance the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. Excess electricity generated during times of high renewable energy production can be used for electrolysis to produce hydrogen, which can then be stored and converted back into electricity when needed. 

Zero Emission When Used: When green hydrogen is used in fuel cells or combustion processes, it produces no direct emissions, as the only byproduct is water vapor. 

However, it’s important to note that the greenness of hydrogen depends on how it is produced. Hydrogen can also be produced using fossil fuels (gray hydrogen) or with carbon capture and storage (blue hydrogen), which reduces emissions but does not eliminate them entirely. The environmental benefits of hydrogen depend on the source of energy used for production and the overall lifecycle emissions. 

Challenges associated with green hydrogen include the high cost of electrolysis technology, the need for significant renewable energy capacity to scale up production, and infrastructure development for storage and distribution.

Can Hydrogen be Produced Affordably?

The Inflation Reduction Act has earmarked clean hydrogen production in the $369 billion set aside for energy security and climate change initiatives.

As with any new industry, costs are usually high until technology improves and supply ramps up. According to an article in Newsweek, “The world’s largest producer of electrolyzers, NEL, believes green hydrogen production could reach cost parity with fossil fuels as early as 2025, and the DOE has laid out plans to reduce the cost of hydrogen to $1 per 1 kilogram within the next decade.”

How do Hydrogen-Powered Cars Work, and Who is Making them?

Hydrogen-powered cars, also known as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), work by using a chemical process to convert hydrogen gas (H2) into electricity to power an electric motor that drives the vehicle. Here’s how they work: 

Hydrogen Storage: Hydrogen gas is stored in high-pressure tanks or sometimes in liquid form, depending on the vehicle’s design. These tanks are typically located in the vehicle’s rear or undercarriage.

Fuel Cell Stack: The heart of a hydrogen-powered car is the fuel cell stack. The stack consists of multiple individual fuel cells, each of which contains a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) or other types of fuel cell technologies, such as alkaline or solid oxide fuel cells. 

Hydrogen Injection: Hydrogen from the storage tanks is delivered to the fuel cell stack. This hydrogen is typically very pure, as any impurities could damage the fuel cell. 

Electrochemical Reaction: Inside the fuel cell stack, a chemical reaction takes place. Hydrogen molecules are split into protons (H+) and electrons (e-) at the anode (negative electrode) through a process called hydrogen oxidation. The protons move through the proton-exchange membrane, while the electrons are forced to travel through an external circuit, creating an electrical current. 

Electricity Generation: The flow of electrons through the external circuit creates electrical power, which can be used to drive the electric motor of the vehicle. This motor provides propulsion to the wheels, allowing the car to move. 

Combining with Oxygen: The protons generated at the anode travel through the proton-exchange membrane to the cathode (positive electrode), where they combine with oxygen from the air, typically supplied through an intake, to form water (H2O). This chemical reaction generates additional heat and water vapor as byproducts. 

Emission: Zero Emissions: The only emissions produced by hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are water vapor and heat. There are no tailpipe emissions of harmful pollutants or greenhouse gases, making them environmentally friendly.

Energy Storage: If the vehicle has a hybrid configuration, it may also include a small battery pack for regenerative braking and temporary energy storage. This allows the vehicle to recover and store energy during braking and then release it to assist with acceleration.

One notable advantage of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is that they offer longer driving ranges compared to many battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) due to the high energy density of hydrogen. However, there are several challenges to widespread adoption, including the limited availability of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, the energy required to produce and transport hydrogen, and the high cost of fuel cell technology.

Despite these challenges, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are being developed and deployed by various automakers and governments, particularly in regions where hydrogen infrastructure is being developed to support their use.

Which Automakers are Developing Hydrogen-Powered Cars?

Hyundai N Vision74 (Image Source: Hyundai)

Hyndai just gave the green light for the production of the N Vision 74 Hydrogen-poweered sports care. This vehicle, designed for well-heeled  sports care enthusiasts, will carry an estimated price tag of $160,000 and have superior performance, acoording to MotorTrend.

Nikola plans to start delivering hydrogen fuel cell semi trucks within the next few weeks. Companies like J.B. Hunt and AJR Trucking are lined up to take deliveries. In testing, these trucks show a range averaging over 500 miles, according a report published in Teslarati.com.

Toyota and BMW also have hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle projects underway.

The post Is Hydrogen a Viable Green Energy Alternative? appeared first on Global Investment Daily.

More recently, though, millennials have busted this stereotype. 

Last year, they became the largest living adult generation in the U.S. after surpassing baby boomers and Generation X. But that’s only part of the shift that’s underway. Millennials not only make up the largest working cohort but are also big drivers of megatrends such as technology, social change, urbanization, climate change and emerging global wealth. 

Millennials are also proving to be savvy stockpickers, frequently managing to outperform more seasoned investors. Indeed, according to data published by Apex Clearing, the Top 10 millennial stock picks representing ~50% of their portfolios have comfortably outpaced the market with a weighted mean year-to-date return of 108.5% compared to a 5.8% return by the broad market benchmark, S&P 500.

Here are the top megatrends favored by millennial investors.

#1 Clean Energy/eMobility

The EV megatrend is widely regarded as one of the biggest and most powerful trends that will dominate the world for decades. In 2019, electric mobility reached a tipping point with more than two million EVs sold around the world, good for a record 2.5 percent of the global light-vehicle market.

The Covid-19 crisis has exacted a heavy toll on most sectors of the global economy; however, clean energy sectors including EVs have proved amazingly resilient. At a time when the global oil and gas industry is going through its worst existential crisis, renewable energy sectors such as solar and wind have continued to record significant growth and playing an ever-bigger role in our electricity generation mix. The EV sector has not been left behind with 2020 EV sales expected to broadly match the 2.1 million units sold in 2019, as per the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The long-term outlook remains bright, with catalysts such as falling battery and vehicle costs, more stringent fuel economy and emissions standards, shared mobility services and the irresistible ESG megatrend expected to continue driving adoption levels. Indeed, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has predicted that EV sales will account for 58% of new cars sold by 2040 compared to 2.7% in 2020.

Although ESG investing is a multigenerational trend, millennials are definitely playing their part with one study finding that millennial investors are nearly twice as likely to invest in companies or funds that target specific social or environmental outcomes. 

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) has become the quintessential millennial stock, consistently ranking among the most popular stocks on zero-fees trading app, Robinhood. According to Apex  Clearing, TSLA was the third most popular stock among millennials accounting for a 9.5% slice of the portfolios. Other popular EV stocks by this demographic are Nio (NYSE:NIO) and Nikola (NASDAQ:NKLA).

#2 Sharing Economy

The millennial generation has been driving most of the growth in the sharing economy, consisting of peer-to-peer platforms that provide access to shared goods and services. That’s according to Forrester Research, which says baby boomers are more cautious about the sharing concept.

That’s the case because millennials tend to value experiences more than material goods, characterized by their fondness for using smartphones to share their adventures on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. About 47% of millennials prefer to spend money on experiences than products, compared with 29% of baby boomers. 

This cultural shift has helped propel shared mobility into a multi billion-dollar industry. 

Shared mobility, including services such as taxis, car sharing and ride hailing account for an estimated 5% of current passenger vehicle miles; BloombergNEF sees that rising exponentially with shared mobility services projected to account for 19% of the total annual mileage completed by passenger vehicles in 2040.

The economics of EVs are considerably more favorable in a sharing economy, thanks to lower fuel and maintenance costs. EVs currently account for 1.8% of the shared mobility fleet, but could climb to 80% by 2040 as per Bloomberg.

The leading stock here is Uber (NYSE:UBER) though millennials who went against the grain and continued piling in shortly after its IPO got badly burned. The other is Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) though it’s much less popular with millennials and does not rank among their top 100 stocks.

#3 eCommerce

Millennials and their smartphones are inseparable, and one of the activities they love doing on their hand-held devices is online shopping. Indeed, Joan Driggs, vice president of content and thought leadership at IRI, has told eMarketer that millennials are omnichannel consumers in the truest sense of the term, equally at home shopping online as they are shopping in-store.

Millennials also constitute the most digital demographic among U.S. consumers, with nearly 86% frequently shopping online compared to 78% of Generation X and 61% of baby boomers.

There are no prizes for guessing which ecommerce site millennials frequent most: Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Amazon not only serves as the starting point for many millennials when they search for products online but many tend to fully commit with 73% of millennials being Amazon Prime members.

Amazon is the second most-popular stock amongst millennials, accounting for 9.8% of their portfolio holdings.

That appears to be wise investing since digital-impacted sales have been forecast to continue growing and exceed $2.4 trillion by 2022, good for more than 58% of total retail sales.

Source: CBRE

#4 Mobile

Source: Pew Research

Millennials have frequently led older generations in their adoption and use of technology, and this certainly rings true when it comes to smartphone and mobile device use.

According to Pew Research, 93% of American millennials own a smartphone; 53% own a tablet computer and 86% use social media, essentially leading in two categories except tablet adoption where Generation X leads with a 55% ownership clip. 

Although there are signs that we might have reached peak smartphone, millennials have continued to put their money where their mouths and hearts are with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) consistently ranking as the most beloved stock by millennials with a 10.6% share of their portfolios.

#5 Video

Three years ago, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared:

“I see video as a mega trend, same order as mobile.” 

Turns out he was right on the money.

Consumer video has been exploding, with online video consumption skyrocketing. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) continues being the big daddy of the space with 190M subscribers, making it one of the world’s largest entertainment services. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube is hardly a sluggard though, with revenue figures very much comparable to Netflix’s.

The global video streaming market was valued at USD 42.60 billion in 2019 and is projected to record a robust growth rate of 20.4% CAGR from 2020 to 2027 with innovations such as AI and blockchain technology expected to continue improving video quality and boosting market growth.

Not surprisingly, Netflix is the 8th most popular stock in millennial portfolios while Alphabet chips in at #14.

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