Central Place Theory and the Dominance of Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier

Marchetti, C. (1985). Central Place Theory and the Dominance of Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-85-073

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Abstract

Central place theory plays a central role in interpreting the special organization of human activities.

Simply stated it says there is a breakeven between the advantage of concentrating more and more production and processing and the cost of spreading the products further and further away.

The balance between these gains and costs fixes the size of the production units and of their market areas which finally appear as a roughly exagonal chequer board.

A critical parameter in the game is the "transportability" of the product. Low transportation costs favour large production units and large captive areas. Hydrogen, with its low transportation costs, as a gas or as LH2, is ideally suited as an energy vector for very large nuclear or fusion primary energy generators.

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