Sorry, but this oil fixation is so tired. Oil is just not economical to produce, and is not going to sit at the top of the energy food chain forever. Tar sands, deep water in the arctic, hydrofracturing etc are all massively expensive (and in the case of hydrofracturing, cooking our planet via methane emissions) and have been losing money for many years; huge subsidies must be paid to allow western nations to enable some energy independence but it is not worth it.

Hydrogen is going to replace all conventional fuel types; from diesel to kerosene, coal to natural gas - all of them. We know it's going to be cheap because electrolyser manufacturers are already ramping up all around the world, ready to produce hydrogen from the vast solar and wind farms being built. Just to give you an idea, between 5-7% of Europe's total energy supply will be replaced by electrolysed hydrogen by 2030 - that is 660TWh, 20m tons of hydrogen.

So it's going to be cheap; replacing 30% of EU coal for steel; and as soon as governments realise this it will be everything else; trucks, aviation, gas turbines, SUVs, heavy industry, seasonal energy storage, heating etc. It is the universal fuel type, using the gas network for supply (96% if EU's gas network is hydrogen-ready) and storable in caverns in exactly the same way. It can be produced anywhere there is wind or sun, and further available by decarbonising natural gas, pyrolysing waste or biomass, from nuclear etc. Hydrogen is going to beat them all, and it is happening even faster than the renewables boom, which now represents approximately 90% of all new electricity investment.

The global hydrogen economy is real, and happening. The sooner we make the shift the better.