Our Take – Future global demand for hydrogen fuel in aviation could require more than half of all power produced in EU today

No one disputes that decarbonizing aviation will require massively expanding the production of low-cost renewable electricity. This story draws on a new report from the World Economic Forum et al that examines the infrastructure requirements for hydrogen and battery-powered flight. Last year, WEF and McKinsey published another report on power-to-liquid SAF, which will also require enormous amounts of clean energy, although this could theoretically be produced by solar farms on sparsely populated, non-arable land all over the world. Hydrogen proponents point out that producing hydrogen is typically more cost and energy-efficient than making PtL SAF, while battery fans note that battery-electric flight is more efficient still, an argument for expanding electric flight to as many aircraft as possible. –E.H.