Jessica Verhagen Writes Exclusive for H2View: To Decarbonize Hydrogen Power Get Over the Rainbow
In an exclusive op-ed for H2View Hydra Energy CEO Jessica Verhagen writes about the “Hydrogen Rainbow” and how it’s time to move beyond colour coding hyrdogen to a more transparent reporting of the lifecycle emissions number.
For the hydrogen industry to be an effective component of low carbon economies, it must reject the use of the so-called hydrogen rainbow, and cease using terms from blue to grey to green to denote the quality of the hydrogen being used. ‘Grey’ refers to hydrogen made by fossil fuels, ‘blue’ to hydrogen made by fossil fuels with carbon sequestration added, and ‘green’ to hydrogen made using electrolysis powered by renewable energy.Though many categorise hydrogen using colours and see certain colours like green as good and grey as bad, in actuality, the spectrum is much more complex. Assigning hydrogen a particular colour doesn’t allow enough granularity to compare whether one method of production is quantifiably better to reduce carbon emissions than another or how a hydrogen-based solution compares to other alternatives such as electric vehicles.
With Hydra’s initial commercial project in Prince George, B.C., we’re able to lean on hydropower to power the compressor enabling us to uniquely achieve 9.83g per megajoule. The Province of B.C. itself recognized Hydra’s emission reduction potential by awarding Hydra Part 3 Agreement LCFS credits.
