My limited understanding was that the electrolysis tech is not yet efficient enough at scale to make this feasible. Do you have links where I could read more about the cutting edge in hydrogen production? This is a very fascinating potential tool for solving the "we don't have enough batteries" problem with renewables.

The lack of awareness I am talking about also applies to electrolysis. The current state of electrolyzer technology is already good enough to do the job. Future advancements will make this a no-brainer. This is similar to the rise of photovoltaics a decade (which also caught many 'experts' by surprise).

Some recent advancements:

https://www.energymonitor.ai/tech/hydrogen/toshiba-claims-hy...

https://newatlas.com/energy/hysata-efficient-hydrogen-electr...

https://energynews.biz/idaho-national-lab-and-bloom-energy-p...

The problem with electrolysis was not its efficiency, the problem was capital cost of the electrolysers (so they could be paired effectively with intermittently overproducing renewables.) Efficiency was more of the concern when it was imagined expensive nuclear power would be driving electrolysers 24/7.

Hydrogen leaks like crazy and corrodes storage cannisters. It isnt especially practical.

The world produces and uses 700 cubic kilometers (at STP) of hydrogen annually. Hydrogen has been used on a mass scale industrially since the 1800s. The US has over 1000 miles of hydrogen pipelines.

There are obviously off the shelf components for dealing with hydrogen. This is not some hand wringing unsolved problem.

It can be used there are just better options.

Better cheaper options for seasonal leveling of a 100% renewable grid, or backing up the grid against rare prolonged renewable outages? Pray tell me about these.