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Steffen Møller-Holst, Research Manager at SINTEF Materials and Chemistry |
One day he sits in the government building as a special adviser on hydrogen appointed by the government. The next, he is standing in Trondheim Spektrum exhibition and convention centre in front of a specially built doll’s house packed with hydrogen technology.
Steffen Møller-Holst enjoys the range of experience offered by his two roles as a supplier of premises for politicians and an inspirer of children.
He regards his new appointment by two ministries as a vote of confidence. The Strategic Council of the Hydrogen Platform which he is to chair is to draw up an action plan for the country’s future efforts on hydrogen as an energy carrier.
But Møller-Holst believes that it is just as important to spread the word about hydrogen to the younger generation. During the Technoport Technology Fair in Trondheim last autumn hundreds of school pupils gathered around the boyish native of Bergen. With their own eyes they could see a little hydrogen-driven fuel cell light up his doll’s house.
“We mustn’t forget recruitment. It is today’s children who will carry on the development of hydrogen technology and ensure that it brings Norway environmental benefits and value creation,” says Møller-Holst.
If energy companies can manage large-scale hydrogen production without CO2 emission, cars, trains, ships and aircraft will be able to carry us around without contaminating the environment. While the Americans are doing research on hydrogen in order to become self- sufficient in fuel, it is more in the spirit of Steffen Møller- Holst’s way of thinking that Norway’s hydrogen efforts tend to be based on its environmental advantages.
“I am most interested in the potential for the environmental benefits that new technology opens up,” he says.
The way he sees it, there are a number of good reasons for going in for hydrogen as an energy carrier in the Norway of the future.
Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas. When we can send CO2 from the transformation process down into secure sequestration sites on the continental shelf, we will have an attractive, environmentally friendly way to utilise our enormous gas resources, both for stationary power production and as a source of fuel for the transportation industry.
Hydrogen can also be produced by using electricity to break down water. With the emergence of new renewable energy sources such as wind power, hydrogen is a perfect medium for storing energy during those seasons and times of day when we have no need for wind power – and for use when consumption exceeds production.
Steffen Møller-Holst predicts that new, renewable sources of energy will gradually replace natural gas as the basis of hydrogen production in the course of this century. And last but not least, that hydrogen production will make an important contribution to the value creation that is essential to guarantee the wellbeing of Norway in the post-oil era.
www.sintef.com/hydrogen_h2
www.sintef.com/ecm
www.sintef.com/energy
