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Andrew Forrest, the Australian billionaire betting much of the fortune he made in iron-ore mining on green power, said doubters of hydrogen fuel-cell technology are “muppets.” That includes Elon Musk.
“Anyone, including Elon, including, you know, whoever you like, who says hydrogen hasn’t got a massive future are muppets,” Forrest said in an on-stage interview at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Africa forum in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Tuesday. “Battery and fuel cells are the way of the world in the future.”
Musk, the world’s richest person and founder of electric-carmaker Tesla Inc., has previously described hydrogen fuel-cell technology as “the most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage.”
While Musk uses lithium-battery technology in Tesla vehicles, Forrest is focusing on using green energy including solar to produce hydrogen, which is then stored and used to power fuel cells in the auto and other industries. The 61-year-old is the founder, chairman and biggest shareholder in Perth-based Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent by email.
(By Matthew Hill, with assistance from Sarah Muller)
5 Comments
Andrew Legend
This billionaire is always insulting Musk in order to define himself, to get attention for himself, and while pushing a nonsensical idea too.
Ken Lord
Musk is irrelevant. It’s about physics. It makes no sense to spend energy to make, store, and distribute hydrogen, to then use it in a fuel cell. Every step along the way has thermodynamic losses. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are only 50% energy efficient. Sure that’s twice as good as gas cars, but EVs are 95% energy efficient. And because fuel cells can’t throttle fast, all fuel cell vehicles need batteries. So all you’re doing is adding complexity and inefficiencies. Cut out all that crap and just make EVs.
All this billionaire has is a promise that his flavour of hydrogen is greener than the vast majority which is cracked out of fossil fuels, producing CO2. When his solar panels could power EVs directly, and far more efficiently. S***w him.
David Wilson
Good points Ken,but in the hydrogen process the initial input of electricity is minimized..in my region we are needing to invest millions into out Hydro infrastructure..in the hot months when more energy is needed for air conditioning,rolling brown outs are not uncommon..and if the Hydro distributers gain a monopoly advantage,God help the consumer caught in the middle..we will see once the dust settles
Richard Kent
Twiggy is the Muppet,
H fuel cell cars are not the way forward compared to EVs
Tim Graham
In a parallel universe where the laws of physics don’t apply, hydrogen is used exclusively. Back on planet earth, hydrogen has significant supply chain issues: When pumped through pipelines, it escapes like marbles through a fishnet stocking. Ignoring leaks, if stored at 700 bar, 1 m3 of hydrogen weights 67kg, where as 1 m3 of Unleaded Petrol weighs 745kg. Thus, petrol is 11.1 x denser than the most compressed hydrogen. When compressed at 700 bar, Hydrogen has a calorific value of 120MJ/Kg and Unleaded Petrol has 45MJ/kg at ambient pressure. The all important figure is MJ/m3 as volume defines storage: Hydrogen has 8.0GJ/m3 and Unleaded petrol has 33.5GJ/m3 = 4 times as much. Once you add in the distribution and compressing costs, it will only ever be an expensive niche fuel.