What does Metallica have to do with hydrogen fuel?

The iconic metal band and Baker Hughes are collaborating to use greener energy on tour.

Metallica is taking a step into the early days of the hydrogen fuel industry to help it to decarbonize its tour across Europe this summer.

Some of the band’s equipment will be transported in H2-powered trucks as they go from one city to the next.

Everything from guitars to drums and everything else will be stored in trucks, some of which will be hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Metallica has been outspoken about its desire to slash the carbon footprint left behind by its tours, said Iveco Group CEO Gerrit Marx. Iveco is a truck manufacturer that is designing the tour’s low-carbon trucks. “

“Everywhere they have concerts, we can engage together on sustainability,” said Marx.

By working with Iveco, Metallica has become a new supporter of H2 in low- and zero-emission transportation. As much as H2 has been advancing rapidly, it remains a controversial strategy for decarbonization that has the potential to be central to the global energy transition. That said, for it to be truly clean, it would need to be produced using methods powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar. Currently, the majority of H2 is made using natural gas and other unabated fossil fuels.

Many believe hydrogen fuel will start low-carbon and will work its way greener as it is better established.

According to Marx, the key to the widespread adoption of H2 is to initially ignore how it is made in order to ensure there is enough supply to make it easily obtainable by early adopters. Once large investors see its potential in everyday uses, it will be easier to put the systems in place to produce clean H2 instead.

It is that green hydrogen fuel that will be key as a climate change solution.

Starting now

“We’re getting into the era now that hydrogen is becoming a reality,” said Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli. “We have to invest early on in what we see as the future horizons even though the infrastructure associated with [low-carbon] hydrogen may not be there today.”

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