ABSTRACT
In their early days, new energy technologies tend to be hailed in extravagant terms as single-bullet solutions to multifarious human problems. Hydrogen is no exception to this, and has been welcomed by some as the ultimate solution to the problems of energy security, climate change and air pollution (Rifkin, 2002). There has also been more scholarly work published over the last decade or so (e.g. Padró and Putsche, 1999; NRC and NAE, 2004; Ogden et al, 2004; Hisschemöller et al, 2006; Solomon and Banerjee, 2006 and other papers in this Special Issue of Energy Policy) on the possibility and desirability of a ‘hydrogen economy’, the costs that might be involved, and how such an economy might come about.
