What is hydrogen?
Direct answer
Hydrogen is not an energy source but an energy carrier: a gas in which you store energy and later release it again. You produce hydrogen yourself, from natural gas or through electrolysis of water using electricity, and use it as a fuel, feedstock or storage medium. This lets hydrogen move energy to places and moments where solar and wind power fall short.
- Clear definition
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- Practical next steps
What is hydrogen: scattered information versus Energy Intelligence
A factory running heating processes above a thousand degrees cannot simply switch to electricity. Nor can an inland shipping vessel, or a chemical plant that makes ammonia. For those processes the Netherlands is looking for a clean fuel that carries a lot of energy and can be transported. Hydrogen is the candidate. It matters to industrial companies, transporters and anyone asking how we store energy when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.
- Hydrogen does not come ready-made from the ground; you make it with energy and recover that energy when you use it, hence the name energy carrier.
- The colour tells you how it was made: green via electrolysis with renewable electricity, grey from natural gas with CO2 emissions, blue from natural gas with that CO2 captured and stored.
- Hydrogen is most useful where direct electrification is hard: industry, heavy transport and long-duration energy storage; every conversion does cost energy.
Insight
Traditional approach
Information is scattered across portals, documents, invoices or separate spreadsheets.
Modern approach
Data, context and interpretation are brought together into a clear decision picture.
Decision-making
Traditional approach
Choices are made based on averages, assumptions or occasional analyses.
Modern approach
Scenarios, KPIs and current measurement data make the trade-off more concrete and repeatable.
Follow-up
Traditional approach
Actions often stay non-committal or disappear into separate reports.
Modern approach
Follow-up actions, monitoring and reporting are linked to the same energy data.
How does hydrogen work as an energy carrier?
Hydrogen does not occur freely on Earth; you have to make it first, and that costs energy. In electrolysis, electricity splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen absorbs that energy and releases it again through combustion or in a fuel cell. That is why it is called an energy carrier and not an energy source: it moves and stores energy but produces none itself. Its origin determines the colour. Green hydrogen comes from electrolysis with renewable electricity. Grey hydrogen comes from natural gas, releasing CO2 into the air. Blue hydrogen follows that same natural gas route, but with the CO2 captured and stored. In the Netherlands, almost all hydrogen is still grey today.
- Electrolysis splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity.
- The stored energy is released through combustion or in a fuel cell.
- Green is from renewable electricity, grey from natural gas, blue from natural gas with CO2 capture.
- Almost all hydrogen in the Netherlands is currently grey.
What is hydrogen useful for?
Hydrogen is not the smartest choice for everything; it is scarce and takes energy to make. It is most valuable where direct electrification is difficult. In industry it serves as a fuel for high-temperature processes and as a feedstock, for example for ammonia and fertiliser. In heavy transport, shipping and aviation it can replace diesel and kerosene where batteries become too heavy or too small. As a storage medium hydrogen fills another gap: you convert surplus solar and wind power into hydrogen, store it in for example empty gas fields or salt caverns, and turn it back into energy in winter. For a passenger car or a home that can be insulated well, going electric directly is usually more efficient.
- Industry: fuel for high temperatures and feedstock for chemical products.
- Heavy transport, shipping and aviation where batteries fall short.
- Seasonal storage: keeping summer solar and wind power for the winter.
- For passenger cars and insulable homes, going electric directly is often better.
What are the limitations?
Hydrogen does not solve everything, and that starts with efficiency. Every conversion costs energy: first to make hydrogen from electricity, and later again to turn it back into electricity. A substantial part of the original energy is lost this way. That is why it is unwise to use hydrogen where you could just as easily use the electricity directly. Cost also plays a role. Green hydrogen is still expensive today, partly because there is little renewable electricity to spare to make it from. And the infrastructure is still being built: the Netherlands is laying a national hydrogen network, of which Gasunie has delivered the first section in the Rotterdam port area. Outside such areas, transporting hydrogen is limited for now.
- Every conversion costs energy, so part of the energy is lost.
- Do not use hydrogen where direct electricity is possible.
- Green hydrogen is still expensive and the renewable electricity for it is scarce.
- The national hydrogen network is under construction and does not yet cover the whole country.
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