Alternative sources of green energy . Why are we not using hydrogen ?

Which would you rather have ?

This ,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20707574

Or this with a little development and economy of scale ,

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20091185-54/a-hybrid-solar-panel-to-ma...

I also wonder which is actually more efficient and a lot more environmentally  friendly  

That's known as a strawman argument. Putting up a bonkers idea that NOBODY wants (fracking) against your idea isn't the way to win your argument as nobody agrees with the other idea anyway (apart from the people making money out of it of course).

That other link looks interesting though, where do you get the methanol from though? How green is its manufacture? It's also massively flammable (and burns with an invisible flame, so you wouldn't even notice it until it was too late).

Anyway, you're still missing the point, hydrogen is a good idea on paper, it just isn't practical *right now*. That's all anybody's been saying to you in answer to your original question. If it takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than we're actually using right now then it isn't going to help. Be nice if you actually indicated that you understood that point.

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/04/16/yamaha-tests-golf-cart-powered-with...

I do understand an agree with you up to a point but the sun is the largest source of energy available to us so why don't we all agree that we should use it to store the suns energy in the form of hydrogen .

If you think of the sun as a huge hydrogen fusion reaction in the sky transmitting unimaginable amounts of free energy to us here on Earth ,all we have to do is convert all that energy back into hydrogen and store it for future use.  Water is the raw material and the sun is the free energy source to extract the hydrogen energy trapped inside the water.

You are right no one in their right mind wants Fracking but unfortunately our wonderful government has just approved the fracking process in the UK despite the howls of protest .

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4696092/resuming-fracking-coul...

You are also correct that there is a lot of work needed to make hydrogen as a fuel viable in the short term but there is an enormous amount of research and development being done worldwide into making Hydrogen energy a total replacement for all fossil fuels in the long term especially in the USA and China .

The Methanol is only simple wood alcohol that is used worldwide already in many industrial processes . It is mixed with the water in small amount so that at the correct temperature the new catalyst can strip Hydrogen atoms from the water to be compressed and stored for future electricity and other energy needs .

If we don't start taking Hydrogen seriously now even though it is not economically or technologically viable immediately it will be too late and our children and grandchildren will curse us for being so selfish and greedy having used up most of the fossil energy by burning it rather than saving it for the future carbon based materials that will and are already being developed .

The existing oil and natural gas deposits will probably last  my lifetime and possibly yours depending on you age but how can we look our children in the eyes without feeling guilty about what legacy we will be leaving them if we do not even try to develop alternative sources of energy .

The clip below is a little off topic but has a great deal of relevance , If you can watch this without getting a lump in you throat then there is nothing more to say .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY

And that's great, nobody's suggesting that the research shouldn't continue or that, once the technology is viable, we shouldn't be using it but that time isn't now.