Impact on UK Power Generation

Hydrogen roundtrip efficiency compares well against conventional gasoline. However this is only in case renewable energy sources are used. To project the energy requirement onto a national level the annual energy consumption of the 24,808,549 vehicles currently registered in the UK was considered. Each car travels on average 11,000 miles a year and has an autonomy of 279.63 miles on 4 kg of hydrogen. Therefore each car refuels on average 39 times annually requiring 214.51 kWh per refuelling. This gives an annual requirement of 207.54 TWh to meet current UK transport demands. The current UK power generation is 354 TWh and is split as shown in the chart below:

UK Power Generation

If the proposed hydrogen production is introduced the energy demand would be 58.63 % of the UK's total power generation. Thus it is clear that the available renewable energy would be insufficient to power a hydrogen economy. An extra 197.54 TWh would be required, this represents around 493,227 wind generators (250W) . Thus it is clear that a major investment in renewable energy would be required. Renewable energy could be used along with nuclear energy in a nation-wide scheme as a target of 207.54 Twh would be almost impossible to achieve based on renewable energy alone. The difficulty in achieving such a scheme is emphasised in a recent government white paper on energy that targeted a rise in renewable energy to only 41 Twh by 2020.