New Zealand can become self-sufficient in transportation fuel by replacing its fossil- fuel vehicle fleet with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and meet its CO2 reduction commitment under the Kyoto Agreement if it can generate enough electricity to both continue the historic growth of electric energy consumption and produce the large quantity of hydrogen needed as replacement fuel. Electricity generation is currently obtained from hydroelectric dams and geothermal steam fields augmented by natural gas that also buffers the variations in annual rainfall. Large deposits of coal are available as a secondary resource. Estimates of the additional energy required to produce the hydrogen fuel over the next 50 years indicates that extensive use of fossil fuels would still be needed. The development of CO2 removal processes would allow the requisite growth of hydrogen production. The amount of primary energy resources needed to add hydrogen production to the business-as-usual growth in electric power demand is calculated for the development period through 2050.
展开▼
