In this episode, Andrew Horvath, Global Group Chairman, Star Scientific Limited, discusses the role of hydrogen in the new energy economy.

Hydrogen became more prevalent after the first energy crisis in the early 1970s. It has now taken a giant leap forward as climate change and the war in Ukraine has made energy and its production a bigger issue. People have come to realize that there is a significant role for hydrogen to play in the new energy economy.

With hydrogen taking a center stage in the energy discourse, there are ongoing efforts to reduce its high manufacturing costs and governments are stepping in to provide impetus to hydrogen economy.

What remains to be seen is how long it will take to convert our existing energy infrastructure so that it can run entirely on hydrogen.

In this episode of the Decoding Innovation podcast series, Andrew Horvath, Global Chairman for Star Scientific Limited, talks to our host Mitali Sharma about his journey in the hydrogen economy, the impact of hydrogen on parts of our economy, the "plug-and-play" approach for a transition to hydrogen across industries and the ways by which governments can facilitate the adoption of hydrogen.

Key takeaways:

• The problem with hydrogen has always been the high cost of manufacturing. However, by reducing the amount of energy to produce hydrogen, new smarter systems can bring hydrogen under the cost of natural gas.
• Enabling power plants to run entirely on hydrogen is challenging and massively costly. Thus, adopting an incremental approach of changing just the heat component is better suited for a transition to hydrogen.
• Government has a big role to play in the transition to hydrogen by making the process to get grants easier. Industry, banks and people need to be provided regulatory relief.