Brainwaves - Hydrogen power

Hydrogen power

Download Hydrogen power

Surf n' Turf is a new pilot project on the Orkney island of Eday that aims to harness excess renewably generated electricity; store it as hydrogen and then make it available again as electricity to charge the inter-island ferries berthed overnight, in the soon to be developed hydrogen port at Kirkwall.

The idea of using hydrogen as a source of power isn't new. Commercial scale electrolysis has been around for a couple of hundred years. Today there are already hydrogen cars and buses on our roads, prototype ships at sea and plans on paper for introducing it into aircraft, all powered by the most abundant element in the universe.

However it is widely known that one of the biggest problems with renewable power is the intermittency of it, yet our demand for energy is constant. In this episode of Brainwaves, Pennie Latin explores whether hydrogen might overcome that intermittent problem and be the power source we all turn to in future.

Published on Tuesday, 29th March 2016.

Available Podcasts from Brainwaves

Subscribe to Brainwaves

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Brainwaves webpage.