Does a hydrogen economy make sense?

A sustainable energy world will be base d on renewable energy sources. With the exception of biomass, all natural energy contributions will be harvested as electricity. Electric power will replace fossil carriers as the "lead currency" in the energy market. Today, coal, oil and natural gas are upgraded to electricity in thermal power plants or fuel cells. In the future, the base energy will already be high-grade electricity. It can be distributed with high efficiency and zero pollution by existing transmission systems and proven technology. Hydrogen will be mańufactured from electric power by electrolysis. It then has to be packaged by compression or liquefaction to make it marketable. The transport of the packaged energy carrier will also consume energy and so does its transfer and storage. Because of the high energy losses (about 50%) the consumer has to pay about twice as much for hydrogen as for power from the grid. Even with the best fuel cells only 50% of the hydrogen energy can be converted into electricity. Consequently, electricity from hydrogen will be generated with only 25% overall efficiency and be about four times as expensive as grid power. The consumer will prefer electric heat pumps to hydrogen furnaces and electric cars to hydrogen vehicles. Hydrogen cannot become u dominating energy carrier because it always has to compete with the originąl energy: electricity. There is no room for hydrogen in a sustainable energy economy.