C06 - Beyond Electricity: Dedicated Off-grid, Renewables-source, Hydrogen Production with Underground Pipeline Transmission and Distribution, with "Free" Storage

Our urgent goal, near-total de-carbonization and de-GHG-emission of the entire human enterprise, will require so much CO2-emission-free energy that electricity Grid expansion will be technically and economically inferior to complete energy systems based on gathering, transmission, and distribution via the carbon-free fuels -- hydrogen and anhydrous ammonia (NH3) -- in underground pipeline networks with annual-scale firming storage at < $ 1.00 / kWh CAPEX. "Packing" gaseous hydrogen (GH2) pipelines provides "free" storage; hundreds of salt caverns of ~ 100 GWh each, and liquid NH3 storage in surface tanks of ~ 200 GWh each, provide affordable annual-scale dispatchable energy at continental scale. Large-scale transmission costs less in GH2 pipelines than via electric lines; GH2 and NH3 storage costs far less than batteries, now, and will beyond 2030. Therefore, we need to now "think beyond electricity" to complete, optimized energy systems -- from photons and moving air and water molecules to delivered energy services and feedstocks -- supplying both "green" energy and industrial feedstocks. Pipeline systems will be a combination of repurposed extant oil & gas pipelines and new builds. We should start linepipe design and manufacturing R&D and system planning now; pipeline construction by 2026.