A hydrogen standard for future energy accounting?

Present methods of energy accounting include both primary energy and final energy consumption Both these methods have inconsistencies although today their impact is minor Some level of inconsistency and approximation in energy accounting is unavoid able when energy inputs come from such heterogeneous sources We argue that in the decades to come renewable energy will probably come to dominate the energy supply system with most from intermittent energy sources particularly wind and solar In such an energy system, existing measures will become increasingly irrelevant for tracking energy use over tune, for assessing a renewable energy source s technical potential and in determining future energy infrastructure needs Further conversion of most primary electricity to a storable energy form will be needed with some then perhaps converted back to electricity as needed We propose that in this case energy production and demand, and technical potential for renewable energy sources will be more accurately measured by use of a new energy accounting framework, based on the energy content of hydrogen (C) 2010 Professor T Nejat Veziroglu Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved