Could the answer to the current fuel crisis be right under our noses? On Our Changing World this week, Sharon Brettkelly talks to some of the scientists analysing ultramafic rocks in places like Lake Pupuke on Auckland’s North Shore and gases from various hotspots around the country, in the hopes that one day hydrogen could power local communities.

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Learn more:

• New Zealand already has hydrogen trucks on our roads and active hydrogen refueling stations. However, some critics say battery technology is a better way to decarbonise. After delays from an international supplier, diesel trucks are being converted to hydrogen in New Zealand.
• Professor Allan Blackman looks at how the Hindenburg disaster has haunted the development of hydrogen technology and why that might be changing.
• And Jesse talks with Dr. Linda Wright from the New Zealand Hydrogen Council about if hydrogen could displace diesel.

Guests:

• Kevin Faure, Senior minerals geologist and Team lead National Isotope Centre, Earth Sciences New Zealand
• Paul Viskovic, Geomodeller, Earth Sciences New Zealand
• Thijs van Soest, Isotope Hydrogeologist, Earth Sciences New Zealand

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details