Paul Rodden • Season: 2024 • Episode: 350
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 350, Paul discusses misconceptions surrounding hydrogen, drawing insights from a Forbes article by Vidal Bharath. He shares strategies to overcome these challenges, highlighting the importance of education, data, partnerships, and supportive policies to unlock hydrogen’s potential in the global energy landscape.
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Transcript:
Just how can we, as the hydrogen value chain, address misperceptions regarding hydrogen? I’ll go over an article in Forbes on the topic, and also give some examples of where I’ve had real world success in today’s hydrogen podcast.
So the big questions in the energy industry today are, how is hydrogen the primary driving force behind the evolution of energy. Where is capital being deployed for hydrogen projects globally, and where are the best investment opportunities for early adopters who recognize the importance of hydrogen? I will address the critical issues and give you the information you need to deploy capital. Those are the questions that will unlock the potential of hydrogen, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Paul Rodden, and welcome to the hydrogen podcast.
In an article in forbes.com Vidal Bharath writes, Hydrogen goes boom? Five strategies to overcome misperceptions about new tech. Vidal writes, As the chief commercial officer of a cleantech business specializing in hydrogen fuel cell technology, I know all too well how overcoming misperceptions can be.
Whether it’s securing investment, signing commercial deals or gaining confidence in what our technologies do, it can be a tough gig. And that’s not just for those working with hydrogen and related technologies, but for any business attempting to challenge the norm with something innovative.
Why? Because it involves proving technical viability, building trust and changing entrenched mindsets.
For our business, we’re up against several outdated yet pervasive misperceptions. Some 87 years after the infamous Hindenburg disaster, we’re still battling the belief that “hydrogen goes boom,” that it’s impossible to handle or that it’s too expensive. Others believe that hydrogen fuel cells themselves are too expensive, too complicated, too inefficient or that successful widespread use is decades away.
While many know that hydrogen is a safe and viable clean energy alternative when handled and managed correctly—as well as that hydrogen fuel cell technology has incredible potential to accelerate global decarbonization—general sentiment remains stuck in this spiral of misunderstanding.
Because of this, even some of the most progressive and exciting innovators in the space find themselves holding back, despite the world’s ambitious net-zero goals requiring hydrogen.
Working in a cleantech business “swimming upstream,” I devised some effective strategies to secure the backing, the deals and the confidence despite the hydrogen nay-sayers. These approaches should help any business working on innovative technology to overcome misperceptions about their new tech.
The first one, Vidal writes, is become a leader with education and awareness campaigns. He says from my experience, one of the best ways to reshape people’s thinking is to establish yourself as a thought leader so that you can share educational narratives.
At Bramble, we use several strategies to spread the word about hydrogen and its role in achieving a sustainable future. We do this primarily through PR to help move our audience’s knowledge of the industry forward.
In terms of being a thought leader, I’ve found the most effective strategy in reshaping thinking about hydrogen’s role in sustainability is to start with the basics. The very complicated industry and technology we work with must be made accessible by all if it is to have real-world successful deployment.
It’s equally important to overcome the hurdles in your audience’s mind. In the hydrogen space, that means reminding the audience that the tech has existed for decades and that it’s inherently safe.
Number two, back up everything you say with data and evidence. He says, When future customers can see the proof of a product or technology in use, it opens up their thinking of how it can be applied to them and their applications.
One of the best ways to do this is with customer case studies that showcase the numbers and success stories. These have proved more impactful than almost anything else we do. We also hold several demo days for potential customers and investors, as nothing has worked better than a real-life show-and-tell.
The third piece is to form strategic partnerships. He says, My company’s go-to-market strategy is primarily focused on B2B relationships. We never intended to bring an original equipment manufacturer-style product to market. Instead, our goal is to design, develop and deliver technology that can help improve our customers’ products.
For companies in similar situations, gaining customer traction through partnerships is a strong barometer of success. You need to strategically target partners with the ability to scale and with customer reach. This, in itself, can help you gain credibility.
The fourth piece is to lobby for supportive policies and government incentives, he says, To create a more favorable environment for hydrogen adoption, we have become a member of councils and lobby groups. This has provided us with educational resources to help communities and onlookers better understand the state of the industry.
For businesses outside of the hydrogen, engaging with policymakers and industry associations can be equally valuable to drive broader acceptance of new tech, secure funding and generally build public awareness.
And number five, show investors and customers quote the art of the possible, Another strategy I’ve found successful in securing investment and commercial deals in the face of misperceptions is to build deep personal relationships with investors and customers.
Often, with both investors and customers, there is a preconceived notion of what they want to see or do. Our role as entrepreneurs, educators and decision-makers is to show these groups the art of the possible and open up their preconceived boundaries beyond what they think they want.
And he concludes with this, Whether you are at the helm of a company creating hydrogen technology, cleantech or any other innovation that challenges the norm, your company will need to shift peoples’ mindsets if you want to bring your solutions to the world at any great scale.
Of course, no one person or company is going to make that shift happen overnight, but the turning point for me will be seeing hydrogen technology on the streets. The more it integrates into our lives, the more it will redefine them. Until then, let’s educate, demonstrate, build relationships and show everyone what’s possible.
Okay, so, great advice from Vidal Bharath, who is the Chief Commercial Officer at Bramble energy. And Bramble energy, which is located just south of London and Crawley is primarily a fuel cell and electrolyzer manufacturer targeting the mobile, marine and portable energy markets. Now I would like to think that many of the listeners to this podcast represent the full value chain of hydrogen, and that includes producers, off takers, mobility, transportation support services, fabricators and manufacturers and enthusiasts of the bright future hydrogen offers, and because of that, I believe it’s important to grow all sectors of the hydrogen value chain together.
And while this article from Vidal does a great job in addressing the misperceptions of brambles technology, some of his points may fall flat, or at least are much more difficult, a task with other companies in the hydrogen space. So let’s look at his first point, become a leader with education and awareness campaigns. I couldn’t agree more, many universities are doing just that. There are hydrogen Programs at the University of Houston, Brunel and Stanford, with several universities just in Texas taking part in hydrogen projects, hubs and technologies like rice, University of Texas, Texan and the University of Oklahoma, with dozens of others following course. But it doesn’t end with formal education programs, corporate sponsorships and education outreach programs are also ongoing to promote hydrogen, but promotion, offering education and being a thought leader only goes so far, which is why we need to address his second point back up everything you say with data and evidence.
Now I’ve been around hydrogen production tech companies long enough to know that even when their data says they have the best product, that’s simply not enough to get their equipment into production. And here’s the thing, some of these companies really do have incredibly viable production methods.
They’re able to manufacture at scale and produce low to negative CI score hydrogen. The problem continues to be offtake demand and spin it any way you want. There is just simply no demand at scale here in the US. Now that does change to varying degrees in other regions around the world, but overall demand is still low, and Vidal does look into how to boost that with his next two points, forming strategic partnerships and lobbying for supportive policies and government incentives.
Of those two, I believe that the primary way to elevate the hydrogen economy and accelerate project development is strategic partnerships. Supportive governmental policies are obviously critical, and incentive programs are helpful, but policies can change with leadership and incentives can be pulled by forming corporate partnerships like BP and ibudrola or Exxon and ad knock and many other organizations that set up hydrogen production with on site demand, we can lower risk to acceptable levels, create long term price agreements, minimize costly transportation and develop micro hubs that can further spur regional hydrogen demand. And Vidal’s last point is an interesting one, and one that I am extremely familiar with.
Show investors and customers the art of the possible. Just in my personal life, I am very close to energy investors. Some appreciate and see the potential in hydrogen, while others find it completely useless and a waste of cash capital.
All of them are in oil and gas, so it makes conversations with them very complicated. But the way I have found to reach them all on the same level is to one find the common ground that we can all agree on. In this particular case, it has been understanding the economics of the various technologies and which technologies make sense for a given region in all of those applications, the economics work.
Think electrolytic hydrogen in Hawaii using geothermal to power the electrolyzers. They want local power there without importing hydrocarbons. Perfect solution. And number two, we’ve also found common ground when discussing other technologies like methane, pyrolysis and natural hydrogen. As oil and gas investors, they see the value in leveraging traditional hydrocarbon supply and or technologies in more efficient ways. Everything boils down to economics. So again, a very good article discussing how to overcome the misconceptions of hydrogen and how to promote technological advancements.
Obviously, there will be nuances with each segment of the hydrogen value chain. The trick will be finding the first foothold to boost your corporate or individual advantage in hydrogen, to get that momentum really flowing.
All right, that’s it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it. If you could leave a good review on whatever platform it is that you listen to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, YouTube, whatever it is, that would be a tremendous help to the show. And as always, if you ever have any feedback, you’re welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com. So until next time, keep your eyes up and honor one another. Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more. I’d appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
