Production, storage, and usage of green hydrogen as an opportunity for the development of smart cities: The case of Reykjavik, Iceland

Climate change is a scientifically well-recognized phenomenon and appears to be accelerated due to greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide. The rapid development of the world economy and human civilization, the issue of energy shortage, and environmental degradation is becoming a real threat. Fossil fuels take up over 80% of human energy consumption, and their continued exploitation may cause future environmental crisis due to massive CO2 emissions and air pollution. Hydrogen (H2) is a clean and renewable energy source, which has aroused the attention of scientists as an alternative pathway of sustainable energy production. This electrolytic-produced hydrogen, known as green hydrogen, becomes a promising alternative as an environmental-friendly fuel. This development has increasingly penetrated almost all European countries, implying that there is differentiation from centralized supply chain models. In parallel, multi-agent and fully decentralized supply chains seem to overcome all obstacles emanated by the region’s complicated topography. With the aim of understanding the offer, demand, cost, and benefit, welfare analyses have been performed to elucidate the socio-economic effects of introducing hydrogen as an alternative of clean and sustainable energy. In this chapter, the impact of this idea and the possibilities to produce clean energy in any country where electricity or fuel can be highly expensive are presented. At the same time, the development of a smart city through the incorporation of this energy source is discussed. To achieve this, the experience and projections of having this technology applied in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavík, where geothermal and hydraulic energy are highly used, is employed as a baseline of comparison with other cities that have overcome with the usage of hydrogen. Thus, the current and future plans of integrating green hydrogen as sustainable energy in other countries around the world are also discussed, with the aim of understanding the actual impact in regard to scientific, technological, and economic aspects. It is expected that, by 2050, more than 22% of the global energy demand can be supplied through the usage of green hydrogen, and Reykjavík can serve as a model for the rest of the world.