content: They are a terrible solution. They are pushed by big oil because most hydrogen comes from big oil and fossil fuels. The primary misconception of hydrogen fuel cells is that they are clean and don't use fossil fuels. In reality they are only clean at the fuel cell but almost entirely relies upon fossil fuels for production. The pollution is simply pushed to processing centers. There is something to be said for that, but it's certainly not a green energy source. The entire concept is very misleading as is commonly pushed. See this: https://voat.co/v/technology/2368373/11781717 And see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is generally between 40–60%; however, if waste heat is captured in a cogeneration scheme, efficiencies up to 85% can be obtained. Fuel cells are also maintenance heavy and generally very expensive to fix and maintain. Given the size of these fuel cells and general cost of mass production, efficiency tends to be on the lower end of things. So you wind up with something like 40% * 65% * 90% (steam turbine efficiency) * 63% (NG combined cycle) * 95% (transmission). Which works out to be roughly 14% efficient. Very easy to see why big oil loves this technology. Compare this against electric cars: 63% (combined) * 90% (steam) * 95% (transmission) * 90% (battery) * 90% (electric motor). Which works out to be roughly 44% efficient. Compared to an ICE in most cars, which generally works out to be roughly 25%-35% efficient. This ignores the fact that electric cars are carrying around the extra weight of heavy battery packs, but you get the idea. Also, I assumed direct drive electric, whereas many electric vehicles also has a transmission and/or differential of some type which will further decrease efficiency. But you get the idea, electric and ICE are both huge wins over this technology. Transmission in math means electric transmission of electricity.