The Hydrogen Economy [Paperback]

Jeremy Rifkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2003

The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The End of Work, The Biotech Century, and The Age of Access. A fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program, he is president of The Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1 edition (August 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585422541
• ISBN-13: 978-1585422548
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy, The Age of Access, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work. A fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program and an adviser to several European Union heads of state, he is the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Bethesda, Maryland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Hydrogen Economy - Hard facts, January 13, 2004

By 

Mario Baldassarrini "toscanaccio" (Lugano, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hydrogen Economy (Paperback)

Jeremiah Rifkin's book "The Hydrogen Economy" does not give what its title promises.
Most of the book is devoted to historical, political, social considerations, most of which I find well written and even convincing, but which have nothing to do with hydrogen.
However, to me as an engineer, his recourse to thermodynamics to explain the fall of past civilizations appears ludicrous and unnecessary - there is no need to appeal to thermodynamics to make us understand that our world will collapse if it will run short of reasonably cheap energy.
Whether the production of liquid fuels and natural gas will peak within the time frames advocated by Rifkin, or at some other time, there is no doubt in my mind that it will peak, and that well before that time the world must start to convert to renewable energies (assuming that energy from nuclear fusion is still far away from being harnessed).
However Rifkin sees everything easy and cheap. In his chapter on Reglobalization from the Bottom up he advocates the installation of fuel cells in every household or neighbourhood or community, but he seems to forget that "upstream" of each fuel cell there must be a power generator (wind turbine or photo-voltaic cell), electrolytic cells to produce hydrogen and a hydrogen storage facility. Scale economies will certainly reduce the cost of these commodities, but in my mind it is difficult to think that with their combined cost, and the energy losses that will be incurred at each step (electricity to hydrogen gas, hydrogen gas to stored hydrogen, hydrogen to electricity) electricity generation will be cheaper than present day cost from fuel or gas fired power plants.
Also the numbers are staggering. Rifkin writes "Providing these 100 million (per year) new users with an average per capita consumption of electricity equivalent to what US consumers enjoyed in 195 would require the creation of 10 million megawatts of new electricity capacity globally by 2005". Should this capacity have to be provided entirely by renewable sources, as a rough order of magnitude this would require the installation of either:
- From 300 to 500 million 300 KW capacity wind turbines, or
- from 1 to 1.5 million square kilometres of photovoltaic cells
All the above seems to me quite sobering. Particularly the shift to renewable energy sources does not give many hopes to be a way "to lift billions of people out of poverty". Therefore I cannot be as optimistic as Rifkin does - however I share with him the conviction that the shift to these sources is inevitable, and that the world must brace itself to meet the challenges and sacrifices that it will entail. The sooner, the better.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, except the part about the hydrogen economy..., August 27, 2003

By 

David J. Segal, Ph.D. (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hydrogen Economy (Paperback)

I thought this book was excellent and that everyone should read it. I found Rifkins arguments about the role of energy in the rise and fall of civilizations and the thermodynamics of Rome to be extremely interesting and thought provoking. Also, anyone interested in a very readable yet detailed overview of the whole fossil fuel picture  its history, future potential, and global impact on politics, humanity, and the environment  would find this book enjoyable. These parts alone make the book worth buying. However, his eventual discussion about the hydrogen economy seems like it was written late at night after a few beers. In comparison with the very analytical earlier sections, he provides only a warm and fuzzy vision of a hydrogen future. Three specific criticisms I had were: 1) Although he uses words like hydrogen and fuel cell a lot, Rifkins vision really depends on the use of renewable energy technologies. And since most people dont live near a thermal vent or can easily dam a river, the fundamental question is whether solar and wind power can provide enough power to meet the high energy demands of 10 billion people. This issue was not addressed. 2) Although he makes a compelling and analytical argument against oil alternatives such as natural gas, coal, and tar sand, the potential role of nuclear power seems to have slipped his mind completely. This is a rather large omission, considering several European countries get more than two-thirds of their electricity form nuclear sources. This should have been a chapter, but was instead not discussed at all. 3) It is not clear that the costs and technical expertise required to build and maintain a distributed energy production network would be more efficient than having several elite companies manage mega-fuel cell facilities. Again, a little more analysis would help convince me that a global democratization of energy is actually possible. In summary, the weakness of the current energy regime is explained well, but one is left wondering if the bright and happy picture of the hydrogen economy that is presented is more than just a house of cards.

53 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Simply Awful - How Does this Guy Get to Keep Writing Books?, December 7, 2005

By 

Dianne Roberts (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hydrogen Economy (Paperback)

I put this book down probably quicker than any other book I can think of in recent memory. It's simply awful.

I can't agree with even the paltry 2 or 3 star reviews who say that the first half of the book was good, but that it misses the point (as well as basic physics, thermodynamics, economics, . . . etc.)

Even the first half of this book is awful. The first chapter was the first sign that you're in trouble. It basically just lists a bunch of "stuff" that's going on: Globalization, Protesters in the streets against it, Telecommunications, Biotech, and . . . err . . . oh yeah, let's not forget 9/11 . . . and . . . Barbara Streisand isn't as good as she used to be, blah, blah, blah. I guess this is supposed to count for serious analysis because after just listing a bunch of trends he decries how there's been no serious analysis about Globalization. (Does this guy live under a rock!?!? Maybe an ivy covered one at Wharton where he apparently teaches . . . note to self: Don't get accepted to Wharton.) The rest of the first chapter describes the oil industry in terms starker than Orwell described Big Brother. But don't despair! The Hydrogen Energy Web will save us all! It will be like what the internet was for communications but for like energy or something like that, and it will destroy the evil oil companies, and it'll make everyone rich, we'll all be able to move back to countryside (I'm serious, he's basically claiming that), it will lay golden eggs, make your first born smarter and prettier, make your hair grow back, etc. Where will get the hydrogen? Oh it comes from stars or something, it's the most abundant element in the universe! OK, who will set up this web? (I'm not kidding here, again) Well, big corporations stole the internet before VOLUNTEER GROUPS could set it up, so we'll have VOLUNTEER GROUPS create the hydrogen energy web this time around. Oh, err, big companies will still be needed to, like, make all the hardware, and all the software (he actually concedes this point in a dismissive sentence), will be needed to send people out to fix any problems, to coordinate it, to, well, actually build it, but somehow it will be made by volunteer groups anyway and big companies won't really be a part of it. Even though they will be. But they won't. LOOK OVER THERE! A giant ball of oil company induced global warming is heading straight for us!!!

The second chapter is even better. He complains about how many classifications of oil reserves there are. With completely non-sensical names like "identified reserves", "non-identified reserves", and whatnot (boo-hoo, boo-hoo, there's just soooo many of them) he concludes that they can only have been created to confuse people so that the big oil executives and politicians can manipulate, confuse, and deceive the stupid masses into believing something or another about oil. (I was never quite certain what that was supposed to be. Oh well.) But not Mr. Rifkin! He's beaten them. He's defined "conventional oil" all himself, which excludes all oil that has been found but is currently uneconomical to extract and sell, all oil in polar regions, and all oil underneath the oceans. He does this to prove that we're running out of oil, and that the big oil companies are cooking the books. Tonight I'm going eat "conventional food" which will exclude all food in two thirds of the Kitchen, and all food in, say, the Living Room, to prove to my family that we're all going to starve to death. Don't tell me I'm wrong son! You're cooking the books!! Don't you see we're all going to DIE!

This book is not only awful, it's duplicitous. One of the few mentions of nuclear power is to say in two sentences basically: Utilities put a lot money into nuclear in the '60's and '70's. In the '80's the utilities made the consumer bear the brunt of a lot cost overruns and power plant shutdowns. The idea is to imply that nuclear power was a giant failure with a bunch of cost overruns and power plants that couldn't keep running. Both sentences might be technically true (because there's no mention of nuclear power in the second), but they're crafted to make you imply a conclusion without any specific evidence or argument.

Let's be clear: This book is a political diatribe. Big oil bad, Hydrogen good because it will do all these wonderful things. How will it do all these wonderful things? Some unconvincing arguments, red herrings, and incomplete and inconclusive examples and complete hypotheticals.

One of the biggest flaws is how it handles (or, more accurately, fails to) where hydrogen will come from, since it is not a primary energy source the way oil, coal, or nuclear is. It will take more energy to extract hydrogen from either natural gas or water than we will ever be able to get from the extracted hydrogen, thanks to the second law of thermodynamics. This is the critical question of what will replace oil, period, and only four pages are dedicated to it. The author's answer is solar. His argument for solar? Well, basically, solars's getting cheaper. That's not a complete argument! Is it FEASIBLE to power the world off solar? To power the United States off solar today would require a solar array the size of a small state! And you'd have to make another state size solar array to handle the growth in energy demand. God forbid the sun not shine one day. (Or maybe we'll have to invade the Middle East still because they have like 364 sunny days a year over there, leaving us at the mercy of the islamist anyway. Norway will probably invade Southern California too.) Solar by itself is getting cheaper, great, what about it's cost RELATIVE to other sources? There's zero discussion about using coal, or nuclear to power electrolysis of hydrogen.

This book is mostly a political posture. He puts forward a fantasy political vision, and tries to scare you into thinking it's the only thing that will save us from impending doom with some false techno-babble in lieu of any actual coherent plan or argument.

There are only two possible ways this book could help solve energy problems. One, you could burn it instead of heating oil this winter. Or two, if some magical invention could tap into all the hot air this author blows out his pipe we could use it to turn a turbine. Probably forever. I'm hoping for this latter option, but planning on the first.