The Promethean Fate of Economy: Will Hydrogen Really Be Prometheus III’s New Gift to Humanity?

The paper aims to analyze, adopting an interdisciplinary method, whether hydrogen can be considered the key-fuel of a new Promethean technology, Promethean in the peculiar meaning that ecological-economist Georgescu Roegen attributes to this adjective of mythological resonance. By Promethean technology Georgescu-Roegen means a particular technology, which is based on a qualitative transformation of energy and on a self-enhancing chain reaction which produces a great surplus of energy available for other processes (which means to have a high Energy Return On Energy Invested, an EROI > 10). In this interpretative frame only three Promethean technologies have been identified by Georgescu-Roegen since the dawn of history (mastery of fire, agricultural and animal breeding techniques, steam engine) which respectively gave rise to the society of the fire regime, to agrarian societies, to industrial societies. Hydrogen satisfies the first requirement of a Promethean technology being able to allow the transformation of chemical energy into electrical energy or kinetic energy, but it does not satisfy the second requirement (EROI > 10) as it actually has too low energy efficiency and a production cost which is still quite high (especially for green hydrogen). However, if we assume a broader notion of Promethean technology compared with Georgescu Reogen’s notion, we can appreciate hydrogen for four characteristics that make it “titanic”: it is an element that is not at risk of exhaustion being very abundant in nature although bound to other molecules; it is a disruptive element due to its capacity of decarbonizing a variety of energy-intensive sectors (this characteristic refers to green hydrogen); it is an element that can lead to a new socio-technical regime based on economic democracy; it is an element that, due to its extreme versatility of use, can, once fully operational, give rise to an open up long-term expansive economic phase. So it may be understandable why after the gift of fire to humanity made by titan Prometheus I, after the gift of coal and other fossil fuels made by Prometheus II, green hydrogen is looming as the new gift of Prometheus III to mankind. This gift, thanks to the fact that green hydrogen is an easily storable raw material, a clean fuel, a vector and a means for accumulation of energy, can contribute, as already pointed out by Jeremy Rifkin, to overcome, at European level, the problems of exhaustion of non-renewable energy resources, of pollution, of climate change, of security and independence of energy supplies, of economic recovery after covid-19 pandemic and Ukrainian war, of lack of democracy in energy generation. This charge of optimism, however, cannot ignore naturally the different problems that in the present slow down a wider diffusion of hydrogen which are analyzed in the essay. “A cleaner planet and a more stable and stronger economy” is the dual objective to be pursued by European Union in the coming years through two strategies: the first strategy is the transformation of European energy systems in the direction of a greater use of renewables energy and of acquisition of a greater integration and flexibility; the second strategy is the implementation, according to what has already been established by European Green Deal to reduce CO2 emissions, of a European Hydrogen Strategy aimed at increasing the production/use of green hydrogen, to be implemented gradually, according to a precise road map, through investments, regulation, market creation and research and innovation, within the framework of a European Clean Hydrogen Alliance. The European Hydrogen Strategy should help to overcome, enhancing national specificities, the bottlenecks still existing in large-scale production of hydrogen (low technological maturity of technologies of synthesis and of use of hydrogen; high manufacturing costs, especially of green hydrogen; absence of an adequate regulatory and certification system; etc.). Some countries of European Union have already equipped themselves with a national strategy for hydrogen according to their specific resources. Italy could aspire to become an international hub for hydrogen production given its geomorphological characteristics, its industrial specialization and its strong competitive advantage both in the sectors of the “core” and in the sectors of the more “ancillary” technologies necessary for hydrogen production.