EEE会議（燃料電池＝水素エネルギー開発の問題点）.........2003/7/19
２１世紀の重要エネルギー源の１つとして、燃料電池（水素エネルギー）の開発に各国がしのぎを削っておりますが、米欧に較べると日本はこの面でもかなり立ち遅れているような気がします。しかし、それ以上に問題は、日本ではまだこの新エネルギーについて一般的に理解が遅れていることだと思います（小生自身も大して理解が進んでいるわけではありませんが）。
第一に、燃料電池の元になる水素はどこからくるのかが大問題で、石油などの火力発電で作るということだと、結局産油国や石油業者に儲けさせるだけで、温暖化防止にも役立ちません。さらに問題は、燃料電池車にしても、肝心の水素をどうやって溜めておくかで、これは電気自動車でも全く同じであり、そもそも蓄電器（バッテリー）の技術開発は驚くほど遅れているようです。どうして蓄電技術はそれほど遅れているのでしょうか？ （どなたか、素人に分かり易く説明してくださいませんか？）
こうした問題は別に日本に限られるわけではないのでしょうが、どうもマスコミや一般市民の間ではこの点に関する理解が著しく遅れており、その結果非現実的な、希望的観測が日常横行しているような気がします。国民、とくに若者たちに将来への希望を持たせるのは大事ですが、現実に基幹電源として頑張っている原子力に対する無理解や反発とあまりにも対照的と言わざるを得ません。
小生が目下参加している米国のあるEメール会議で、最近目に付いた意見を１つ、ご参考までに紹介します。この分野の専門家で、何かこれについてコメントがある方は是非お聞かせください。
--KK
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Growing press coverage of fuel cell development in Japan
reflects
increased interest in (and R&D spending on) fuel
cell development
in all major industrialized nations: the Bush
Administration has
committed to spending some $1.7 billion over the next
five years
on developing fuel cells and hydrogen infrastructure;
the EU has
pledged 300 million euros over five years, down from an
initial
2 billion euros pledge but still significant; the U.S.
and EU agreed
at a recent summit to collaborate on developing hydrogen energy sources
However,
the main issue with fuel cells is where does the hydrogen
come from? Since fossil fuels are likely to be the main
source of
hydrogen, there are some who see fuel cells as
exacerbating the problem,
and playing right into the hands of the oil
companies.
There's an even larger problem, namely that there is no
practical,
compact way to store hydrogen, particularly in a form needed to
power vehicles. As a matter of fact, there is an entire school of
energy researchers that think that hydrogen research is advancing
no
faster than research in improving batteries. Batteries, which are
essentially a 19th century technology, have improved somewhat,
but have
never really advanced to the point that researchers have
hoped. Also, it
does not look like they will.
The truth seems to be that much like the
situation with batteries,
hydrogen research is fraught with wishful
thinking. The situation
with batteries and hydrogen are especially analogous
when it
comes to Japan. Compared to the very widespread use and
availability of rechargeable batteries in, for example the USA,
Japan has definitely lagged in this area.
Also,
Japan has lagged greatly in development of the competitors to
fuel cells,
and it looks like this is another instance of Japan lagging
in an important
field of development, while the world moves ahead.
I've already mention
mini-turbines, but there are a several other
fields of alternative energy
that Japan does not appear to be paying
very much attention too.
The
problem with discussions of alternative energy is the tendency
to discuss
pie-in-the-sky schemes, such as hydrogen powered fuel
cells, as though they
were right around the corner. They are not.
As things stand at this point,
truly practicable fuel cells seem at
least a century, if not more, away from
coming into existence.
W.T.Stonehill
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