Ruminations on Green Hydrogen

Originally circulated on 18 September 2020

Aweh fellow Ruminants & Groupies in Lock Down Level 2

Aweh from  day 175 of lock down – now level 2 but soon to become level 1.

An appropriate greeting for Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™ henceforth is “Aweh”. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aweh. This is a South African multi-purpose slang term often associated with prison use. Very appropriate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_slang_words#:~:text=aweh%2Fawe%20(pronounced%20%5CAAAH,Also%20associated%20with%20prison%. This list of South African slang provides a rich seam of terminology for this paraat ou toppie who has praatsiek for use in future Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™.

I want to thank those of you who immediately alerted me to the series of articles in this week’s Economist on how clean energy will remake 21^st century geopolitics. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/09/17/is-it-the-end-of-the-oil-age. I have read most of these articles and they provide interesting food for thought. I will need the weekend to complete this recommended reading. I have however lifted out this very interesting quote, “Concentration of the world’s oil reserves makes supply vulnerable to geopolitical shocks. Little wonder that the price has swung by over 30% in a sixth-month period 62 times since 1970”. This is an extremely disturbing fact which has played havoc with short and long term budgeting not to mention bonuses and incentives. However, going forward our very learned colleagues have forecast that this will not happen anymore. This is deeply comforting.

I want to provide some  Ruminant Pink Friday’s ™ perspective on my recent and ongoing participation in studying the concept of the hydrogen economy as part of the energy transition. I specifically wish to focus on the marvelous idea of saving South Africa with clean green hydrogen. I was delighted to see that this topic firmly remains on the agenda. My studies have now provided me with irrefutable proof that Dilbert does indeed reside in South Africa and the relevant proof is copied below. Who is Dilbert though?

Further pre-feasibility and feasibility studies are required There is so much work still to be done. Let’s keep our jobs. We can only resolve the issue of whether this makes techno-economic sense by doing a very detailed study and we probably need to involve consultants like Bain, McKinsey or BCG.

Thank you very much for the many helpful suggestions and input and keep the submission ideas flowing.

Regards

Bruce