Is the Green Hydrogen Economy a Pipe Dream?

Green technologies can be difficult to navigate because of their political nature. As investors, we need to take off our ethnocentric goggles and examine economic viability objectively. For example, we use Lazard’s levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to evaluate whether green energy sources perform better than their “dirty” counterparts. Our investment in the world’s largest renewable energy company has proved to be lucrative, and we won’t be selling that firm unless they stop increasing their dividend.

We believe subsidizing green technologies won’t scale. There’s either money to be made solving problems using technologies, or there isn’t. We’re not running a charity, and we invest solely for the purpose of generating a return on our hard-earned dollars. Some argue subsidies are what help technologies gain traction to eventually become profitable, solar being one example. Not that it matters, as retail investors have received the short end of the stick when it comes to investing in solar. The takeaway is that we should only invest in technologies when they become economically viable to avoid VHS vs Betamax situations.

One investment thesis receiving lots of attention from the investment community is green hydrogen. Today, we’re going to look at why the hydro