IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v38y2010i4p1999-2012.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Symbolic convergence and the hydrogen economy

Author

Listed:
  • Sovacool, Benjamin K.
  • Brossmann, Brent

Abstract

This article documents that the hydrogen economy continues to attract significant attention among politicians, the media, and some academics. We believe that an explanation lies in the way that the hydrogen economy fulfills psychological and cultural needs related to a future world where energy is abundant, cheap, and pollution-free, a "fantasy" that manifests itself with the idea that society can continue to operate without limits imposed by population growth and the destruction of the environment. The article begins by explaining its research methodology consisting of two literature reviews, research interviews of energy experts, and the application of symbolic convergence theory, a general communications theory about the construction of rhetorical fantasies. We then identify a host of socio-technical challenges to explain why the creation of a hydrogen economy would present immense (and possibly intractable) obstacles, an argument supplemented by our research interviews. Next, we employ symbolic convergence theory to identify five prevalent fantasy themes and rhetorical visions--independence, patriotism, progress, democratization, and inevitability--in academic and public discussions in favor of the hydrogen economy. We conclude by offering implications for scholarship relating to energy policy more broadly.

Suggested Citation

  • Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Brossmann, Brent, 2010. "Symbolic convergence and the hydrogen economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1999-2012, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:1999-2012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00931-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Penner, S.S., 2006. "Steps toward the hydrogen economy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 33-43.
    2. Clark II, Woodrow W. & Rifkin, Jeremy, 2006. "A green hydrogen economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2630-2639, November.
    3. Blanchette Jr., Stephen, 2008. "A hydrogen economy and its impact on the world as we know it," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 522-530, February.
    4. Clark II, Woodrow W., 2008. "The green hydrogen paradigm shift: Energy generation for stations to vehicles," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 117-129, June.
    5. Doll, Claus & Wietschel, Martin, 2008. "Externalities of the transport sector and the role of hydrogen in a sustainable transport vision," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4069-4078, November.
    6. Taanman, Mattijs & Groot, Arend de & Kemp, René & Verspagen, Bart, 2006. "Diffusion Paths for Micro Cogeneration Using Hydrogen in the Netherlands," MERIT Working Papers 2006-025, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. McDowall, William & Eames, Malcolm, 2006. "Forecasts, scenarios, visions, backcasts and roadmaps to the hydrogen economy: A review of the hydrogen futures literature," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1236-1250, July.
    8. S.R. Osmani & B.B. Bajracharya, 2008. "Nepal," Chapters, in: Anis Chowdhury & Wahiduddin Mahmud (ed.), Handbook on the South Asian Economies, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Clark, Woodrow W. & Rifkin, Jeremy & O'Connor, Todd & Swisher, Joel & Lipman, Tim & Rambach, Glen, 2005. "Hydrogen energy stations: along the roadside to the hydrogen economy," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 41-50, March.
    10. Solomon, Barry D. & Banerjee, Abhijit, 2006. "Erratum to "A global survey of hydrogen energy research, development and policy": [Energy Policy 34 (2006) 781-792]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1318-1208, July.
    11. Edwards, P.P. & Kuznetsov, V.L. & David, W.I.F. & Brandon, N.P., 2008. "Hydrogen and fuel cells: Towards a sustainable energy future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4356-4362, December.
    12. Hisschemoller, Matthijs & Bode, Ries & van de Kerkhof, Marleen, 2006. "What governs the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy? Articulating the relationship between technologies and political institutions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1227-1235, July.
    13. Saxena, R.C. & Seal, Diptendu & Kumar, Satinder & Goyal, H.B., 2008. "Thermo-chemical routes for hydrogen rich gas from biomass: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(7), pages 1909-1927, September.
    14. Tseng, Phillip & Lee, John & Friley, Paul, 2005. "A hydrogen economy: opportunities and challenges," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(14), pages 2703-2720.
    15. Solomon, Barry D. & Banerjee, Abhijit, 2006. "A global survey of hydrogen energy research, development and policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 781-792, May.
    16. Sherif, S.A. & Barbir, Frano & Veziroglu, T.N., 2005. "Towards a Hydrogen Economy," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 62-76, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Drupady, Ira Martina, 2011. "Examining the Small Renewable Energy Power (SREP) Program in Malaysia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7244-7256.
    2. Alanne, Kari & Cao, Sunliang, 2017. "Zero-energy hydrogen economy (ZEH2E) for buildings and communities including personal mobility," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 697-711.
    3. Peter Andreasen, Kristian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Energy sustainability, stakeholder conflicts, and the future of hydrogen in Denmark," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 891-897.
    4. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Drupady, Ira Martina, 2011. "Summoning earth and fire: The energy development implications of Grameen Shakti (GS) in Bangladesh," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4445-4459.
    5. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Scarpaci, Joseph, 2016. "Energy justice and the contested petroleum politics of stranded assets: Policy insights from the Yasuní-ITT Initiative in Ecuador," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 158-171.
    6. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Bulan, L.C., 2011. "Behind an ambitious megaproject in Asia: The history and implications of the Bakun hydroelectric dam in Borneo," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4842-4859, September.
    7. Marshall, Jonathan Paul, 2016. "Disordering fantasies of coal and technology: Carbon capture and storage in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 288-298.
    8. Enevoldsen, Peter, 2016. "Onshore wind energy in Northern European forests: Reviewing the risks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1251-1262.
    9. Hancock, Linda & Ralph, Natalie, 2021. "A framework for assessing fossil fuel ‘retrofit’ hydrogen exports: Security-justice implications of Australia’s coal-generated hydrogen exports to Japan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    10. Budde, Björn & Konrad, Kornelia, 2019. "Tentative governing of fuel cell innovation in a dynamic network of expectations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1098-1112.
    11. Trencher, Gregory & Taeihagh, Araz & Yarime, Masaru, 2020. "Overcoming barriers to developing and diffusing fuel-cell vehicles: Governance strategies and experiences in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    12. Trencher, Gregory & Healy, Noel & Hasegawa, Koichi & Asuka, Jusen, 2019. "Discursive resistance to phasing out coal-fired electricity: Narratives in Japan's coal regime," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 782-796.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dougherty, William & Kartha, Sivan & Rajan, Chella & Lazarus, Michael & Bailie, Alison & Runkle, Benjamin & Fencl, Amanda, 2009. "Greenhouse gas reduction benefits and costs of a large-scale transition to hydrogen in the USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 56-67, January.
    2. Chun, Dongphil & Hong, Sungjun & Chung, Yanghon & Woo, Chungwon & Seo, Hangyeol, 2016. "Influencing factors on hydrogen energy R&D projects: An ex-post performance evaluation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1252-1258.
    3. van Ruijven, Bas & Hari, Lakshmikanth & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & de Vries, Bert, 2008. "The potential role of hydrogen energy in India and Western Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1649-1665, May.
    4. Roberto Fazioli & Francesca Pantaleone, 2021. "Macroeconomic Factors Influencing Public Policy Strategies for Blue and Green Hydrogen," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Contreras, A. & Posso, F., 2011. "Technical and financial study of the development in Venezuela of the hydrogen energy system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3114-3123.
    6. Hosseini, Seyed Ehsan & Wahid, Mazlan Abdul, 2016. "Hydrogen production from renewable and sustainable energy resources: Promising green energy carrier for clean development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 850-866.
    7. Brown, Mark T. & Cohen, Matthew J. & Sweeney, Sharlynn, 2009. "Predicting national sustainability: The convergence of energetic, economic and environmental realities," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(23), pages 3424-3438.
    8. Velazquez Abad, Anthony & Dodds, Paul E., 2020. "Green hydrogen characterisation initiatives: Definitions, standards, guarantees of origin, and challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Bose, Probir Kumar & Deb, Madhujit & Banerjee, Rahul & Majumder, Arindam, 2013. "Multi objective optimization of performance parameters of a single cylinder diesel engine running with hydrogen using a Taguchi-fuzzy based approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 375-386.
    10. Clark II, Woodrow W. & Isherwood, William, 2010. "Inner Mongolia must "leapfrog" the energy mistakes of the western developed nations," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 29-45, March.
    11. Arho Suominen, 2014. "Phases of growth in a green tech research network: a bibliometric evaluation of fuel cell technology from 1991 to 2010," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(1), pages 51-72, July.
    12. Ou, Xunmin & Zhang, Xiliang & Chang, Shiyan, 2010. "Alternative fuel buses currently in use in China: Life-cycle fossil energy use, GHG emissions and policy recommendations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 406-418, January.
    13. Chicco, Gianfranco & Mancarella, Pierluigi, 2007. "Trigeneration primary energy saving evaluation for energy planning and policy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6132-6144, December.
    14. Shashi Sharma & Shivani Agarwal & Ankur Jain, 2021. "Significance of Hydrogen as Economic and Environmentally Friendly Fuel," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-28, November.
    15. Udomsirichakorn, Jakkapong & Salam, P. Abdul, 2014. "Review of hydrogen-enriched gas production from steam gasification of biomass: The prospect of CaO-based chemical looping gasification," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 565-579.
    16. Yoong, L.S. & Chong, F.K. & Dutta, Binay K., 2009. "Development of copper-doped TiO2 photocatalyst for hydrogen production under visible light," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1652-1661.
    17. Park, Sang Yong & Kim, Jong Wook & Lee, Duk Hee, 2011. "Development of a market penetration forecasting model for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles considering infrastructure and cost reduction effects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3307-3315, June.
    18. Xenias, Dimitrios & Whitmarsh, Lorraine, 2013. "Dimensions and determinants of expert and public attitudes to sustainable transport policies and technologies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 75-85.
    19. Osmani, Atif & Zhang, Jun & Gonela, Vinay & Awudu, Iddrisu, 2013. "Electricity generation from renewables in the United States: Resource potential, current usage, technical status, challenges, strategies, policies, and future directions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 454-472.
    20. Hwang, Jenn Jiang, 2012. "Review on development and demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell scooters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 3803-3815.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:1999-2012. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.