This hydrogen turbine turns controlled explosions into electricity
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So renewable energy is used to produce electricity which is used to produce hydrogen which is used to power a turbine to produce electricity. Doesn't sound very efficient!

 

So renewable energy is used to produce electricity which is used to produce hydrogen which is used to power a turbine to produce electricity. Doesn't sound very efficient!

The article mentions that the technology can use other types of fuel as well. What I found interesting is its lack of a mechanical compressor.

 

So renewable energy is used to produce electricity which is used to produce hydrogen which is used to power a turbine to produce electricity. Doesn't sound very efficient!

Probably not, but does efficiency really matter that much, at least in some sense?

If you are using renewable energy, then you are not using fossil fuels, but rather energy that is already going to dissipate itself on the planet anyway, be it wind or solar. So no matter how inefficient it is, it's going to contribute less to emissions. Of course, there are some caveats with this. It can't be so inefficient that the scale of the infrastructure needed to produce the hydrogen fuel is too expensive or build and operate. Also, the manufacture, construction, and maintenance of that infrastructure is not without its own emissions, which need to be amortized over their life and output, but the same is true of a fossil-fuel infrastructure if an apples-to-apples comparison is going to be made.

Also, if it is used as a powerplant for aircraft or other vessels, instead of electrical generation, or even if it is used for portable or remote electrical generation, that might make sense. It will all depend on what the pros and cons turn out to be.