The Hydrogen Revolution; a Blueprint for the Future of Clean Energy by Marco Alverà is published by Hodder Studio on 26th August at £20.00

The history of hydrogen’s use as a man-made source of energy is older than we might think. Late in the nineteenth century, the Danish inventor Poul la Cour improved the design of wind turbines. Realising that his machines were often generating excess electricity that needed to be stored for later use when wind speeds were low, he used electrolysis to make hydrogen. Production of up to 1,000 litres an hour was kept in a tank and then burnt to make light at the high school where la Tour taught. From 1895 to 1902 the machinery worked successfully, keeping the lights on at the school every single day. (Although the building’s windows seem to have been very occasionally blown out by minor explosions of hydrogen)

Similar anecdotes fill Marco Alverà’s new book about the vital role of hydrogen in the world’s energy transition. A senior businessperson now running Italy’s Snam, Europe’s largest natural gas distribution grid, Alverà is the perfect individual to give us sense of how hydrogen is going to be used in the zero-carbon future. The book bubbles with his optimistic fervour and mixes technical detail with personal opinions. It doesn’t remotely read like an earnest manifesto from a corporate leader protected by his public relations team from saying anything too specific. Instead it offers an impassioned argument for a rapid transition to a global economy whose entire energy needs are met by renewable electricity and the hydrogen generated from it.

Alvera - and the Snam strategy team that helped with his research - side with the proponents who foresee a world that gets 25% of its energy needs from hydrogen, more than the share held by natural gas today. Other analysts, such as the International Energy Agency and the Energy Transitions Commission, have recently offered projections that suggest figures of about two thirds of this level.

The book argues that almost every activity that cannot easily be electrified should be converted to hydrogen. So, for example, Alverà suggests that many domestic heating boilers should be switched away from natural gas to hydrogen. He is unusual in thinking this; most analysts recommend the use of electric heat pumps in the large majority of houses. His judgment, perhaps too strongly influenced by the constraints on the Italian electricity grid, is that the infrastructure investment needed to deliver reliable electric power for heating at the coldest times of the year is too great to be envisioned. And, as with the hydrogen at Poul la Cour’s school, hydrogen can be used to provide energy at times when renewable electricity isn’t available.

Marco Alverà sees a much larger role for hydrogen in transportation than most commentators, believing that the longer range of fuel cell cars will help beat off the competition from battery vehicles. The book also enthusiastically promotes hydrogen airplanes, even though they will require a fundamental redesign and may find it difficult to compete with existing aircraft configured to use synthetic zero-carbon fuels.

Alverà gives us analysis, delivered as usual with flair and enthusiasm, that shows how a programme of investment in electrolysers and renewable electricity could push the cost of hydrogen down to below $2.00 a kilogramme within five years. His models show that this is attainable in large parts of the world after 25 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity have been installed, making about 5 million tonnes of hydrogen, or less than 10% of today’s production of the gas from fossil fuels. In the locations with the cheapest renewable electricity this target will be achieved earlier.

But should we believe the chief executive of a natural gas distribution company about the stellar future of alternative energy sources? Without a large role for hydrogen, which can be transported in refurbished natural gas pipelines, Alverà’s company has very poor prospects in the post-carbon world. An increasing number of voices argue that hydrogen is simply a front for ensuring that the main fossil fuel companies, such as Snam, continue in business.

But the author’s case is strengthened by his analysis showing how cheap it would be to build and operate hydrogen pipelines around Europe and beyond, bringing hydrogen from sunny places to the industrial centres where it is most needed. Gas pipelines are very much cheaper to construct and operate than long-distance electricity networks. Alverà suggests new connections both to North Africa and to parts of the Middle East where solar energy will be particularly cheap. Pipelines also offer large amounts of energy storage, with one kilometre containing a maximum of 12 tonnes of hydrogen, with an energy value equivalent to the daily electricity use of 40,000 homes. Even larger volumes can be stored in underground caverns easily created in the salt strata that exist underneath many countries around the world, including the UK and other countries in northern Europe.

Marco Alverà is keen to show us how a world of solar, wind and hydrogen can allow the world can continue to live much as it does now. In his view our lifestyles, including our car and air travel and purchasing of clothes, electronics and other goods, will not need to be curtailed. I think this where he moves on to dangerous ground. The climate crisis is just one part of the unfolding ecological disaster that includes the loss of biodiversity, rising pollution from other sources than energy production and the destruction of many natural environments. Although hydrogen has an absolutely central role in averting the worst of our climate problems, it is not a universal panacea.