A mega power plant in Patagonia produces green hydrogen and then synthetic gasoline. But this sets the wrong course.
The pilot project is proceeding rapidly “Haru Oni”In the expanses of the Patagonian steppe of Chile. Less than a year after the start of the works, the synthetic petrol (e-fuel) factory. almost completed. Green hydrogen is first produced from wind energy and water. This is then used to produce synthetic gasoline using the CO2 from the air. A consortium that includes Siemens Energy, Exxon and Porsche is in charge. The German luxury carmaker wants to buy e-fuel.
The pilot plant will soon produce 130,000 liters of gasoline per year, or only 3-4 large tanks. But already in 2026 the plant will be expanded to a capacity of 500 million liters. To this end, 400 wind turbines with a capacity of two gigawatts will rotate in the Patagonian steppe.
Green hydrogen is a rare resource
An impressive example of German engineering. And at the same time surprisingly obvious evidence of the fears of many experts that a technology central to a fossil-free future is being used for the wrong purposes and in senseless competition with the elementary needs of key German and European industries. Because green hydrogen is a rare resource: it is scarce, the “champagne of the energy transition”. So far, only a small fraction per thousand of all hydrogen produced in the world has been produced from green electricity, the rest is produced from fossil fuels.
Even if the production of green hydrogen were to grow as rapidly as some have predicted in the coming years, this substance will still be needed for a few decades to make those sectors of the economy for which there are few alternatives: steel production, air and long-distance shipping, some areas of the chemical industry, just to name a few. Because it’s hard to imagine that we could get by without steel or shipping anywhere in the world.
Individual car traffic and especially speeding on German motorways are not among these applications. On the one hand, almost all countries show that they can make good and, above all, safer progress with a top speed of 120 km / h. On the other hand, there are much more efficient alternatives for car traffic, not to mention the train. With one kilowatt-hour of green electricity, a modern car with lithium batteries goes about five times farther than a combustion engine with electronic fuels. In other words: five times more wind turbines, solar panels and their raw materials are needed for combustion engines with electronic fuels to make a given volume of traffic CO2-free than electric cars with conventional batteries.
Electronic fuels have poor energy efficiency
Outgoing VW chief Herbert Diess understood this: “But the efficiency of electronic fuels is extremely bad,” he says in the Interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “You can imagine it for some vehicles.”
In a world of unlimited clean energy, we might not care: if people are willing to pay for it, then – apart from the risk of accidents – it would be their innocent private pleasure to whiz on the freeway in a Porsche and enjoy the sound of the combustion engine.
But we don’t live in this world yet. The wind and the sun are not in short supply, but the wind turbines and photovoltaic panels that raw material, which are necessary for their construction, factories, workers. The industry is producing to the limit and yet cannot keep up with deliveries. Green electricity will remain scarce for a long time, just as much as the CO2 budget we still have.
So it will be tight. If we want to have the ability to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C or just below 2 ° C, then we need to use the scarce green electricity and the green hydrogen it produces as efficiently as possible. And we need to focus on what is actually essential. Racing in a Porsche on the freeway is not one of them, just like space tourism, supersonic flightsflying taxis e Private jets. In times of climate crisis, this could and should in fact be “renounced” – warning: trigger warning.
Need to discuss energy consumption priorities
To overcome the planetary bottlenecks of the coming years and decades, we need a debate not only on means and technologies, but also on aims and priorities: what consumption of resources is essential and which can be done without. The question of sensible priorities arises immediately in Europe, given the shortage of gas in the coming winter and the warned willingness of the population to make sacrifices – and it arises worldwide in the coming decades in the light of the climate crisis and the scarcity of renewable energy in Europe. relation to global energy consumption.
Given the tough political battle over the end of the internal combustion engine and the speed limit, the suspicion in the Haru Oni case is clear: for Porsche, the purpose of the plant in Patagonia is not just to produce a few liters of electronic fuels. It is also a great lobbying tool. The project aims to convince politicians to give the inefficient combustion engine a future instead of sending it to the museum. And it saves the premature frenzy on German motorways even in the era of the climate crisis.
This perspective is more than just a hobby to keep some classic cars running. Then it comes to one Setting of the course in mobility policy. The newly crowned Blume, Diess’s successor and head of Porsche he has already spoken out in favor of electronic fuels. It would not be a surprise if he delivered the first e-fuel tank from Patagonia to his lawyer and Porsche driver Christian Lindner. The close connection seems to be there. But one painted green The first liberalism it can at best serve to calm one’s conscience – other tools are needed to deal with planetary crises.
