SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS
Vision H2 firmly believes the utilisation of hydrogen energy is a smart choice in supporting Scotland's new Energy Strategy and Climate Plan and other governments initiatives further afield. Below is an assessment of the environmental, social and economic implications and benefits the deployment of this system may incur, discussing how mitigation may be undergone to produce an increasingly sound system regarding its sustainability.
System Advantages
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Abundant Source
As detailed in 'Why Hydrogen?', hydrogen is an abundant source that doesn't need to be mined - one of the most attractive aspects of the system.
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Clean
A concern that arises in using hydrogen as an energy source is the power requirement to produce it - often referring to taking power from the grid, however this is the key advantage to this system presented by Vision H2. The modular system utilises a renewable energy source to power the electrolyser and offers a zero carbondioxide solution.
Reliable system
This model designs for a flexible energy system that is adaptable to any size of demand and gives the security of guaranteed energy throughout the year.
Non-Toxic
Hydrogen is not a toxic or harmful chemical to human health such as other methods of harnessing energy like nuclear or natural gas.
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System Disadvantages
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Vast land use
A key problem in terms of harnessing solar energy is the vast land use that comes with it including degradation and habitat loss.The main factors determining the land requirement are the efficiency of the solar technology, topography of the land and solar intensity of that area; hence, wind or another renewable energy source may be evaluated as a more suitable option for a given site.
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Material Use
In the construction of the system itself, the materials required for some of the key components are not particularly sustainable and may well be limited to their use in the future, such as the examples below. However, research continues in making these components more sustainable, a particularly interesting development could be the use of graphene in place of platinum in fuel cells.
PV Panels: Polycrystaline Sillicon
Electrolyser: Carbon
Fuel Cell: Platinium​
Expensive
Producing hydrogen energy is expensive, electrolysis and fuel cells are particularly expensive. Future research will be required in this field to bring down the price and make this technology affordable. Discussed further in the economic analysis section.
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Safety
Hydrogen is highly flammable as a gas and a liquid, particularly in the case of transport however this system wouldn't require this apart from in the case of potentially selling hydrogen which would require a health and safety risk assessment.
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Carbon Emissions
Whilst there are no direct emissions associated with the generation of energy using this system, there are various stages before, during and after system deployment such as manufacturing, maintenance, decommissioning and transportation.
Social Implications
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A social impact assessment involves the analysis and monitoring of social consequences, whether positive or negative, associated with a project. For this project, social impacts would need to be considered for each location due to the flexible nature of VisionH.
Therefore, the following general social impacts were considered:
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Potential for employment
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Community acceptance
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Health improvements
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Educational gain
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UN Development Goals
While focus for this project revolved around UN Sustainable Goal 7 for Affordable and Clean Energy for all, there are other goals that have been incorporated into Vision H analysis (United Nations, 2015)
(click images for further information regarding individual goals)
Goal 4. Quality Education
VisionH beleive that the design of our renewable system will open up doors and opportunities for lifelong learning through the promoting of sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles.
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Goal 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
VisionH has the potential to have economic growth in the future with the system offering job opportunities that supports productive activities. This goal also involves VisionH’s endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.
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Goal 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
The system gives rise to potential technological progress in efforts to increase resource and energy efficiency.
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Goal 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
The system allows cities to thrive, while meeting the electrical demand of any community. Reduction of pollution via the carbon neutral aspect of the system and has the potential in aiding the development of sustainable and resilient cities.
Goal 13. Climate Action
VisionH combats this UN goal by creating a system that has little to no adverse effects to the climate.
Future work for the system would be to investigate how to integrate national policies and strategies with the technical and environmental factors of the system.