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you can make hydrogen via other means, directly from sunlight, for example, although admittedly that technology is not here yet.

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His point was Hydrogen was just another form of battery.

Like Oil.

you mean the technology where you connect electrodes to solar panel or wind turbine, put them into water and hydrogen and oxygen come out?

The energy has to come from somewhere, but it doesn't have to come from electricity (every conversion means energy is lost, and a light -> electricity -> water conversion is potentially less efficient than a more direct conversion).

Hydrosol-2 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrosol-2) is an example of solar hydrogen production with no electric current intermediate - it involves high temperatures, so I'm not sure how much energy is lost maintaining that temperature compared to captured producing hydrogen, but it could theoretically be more efficient.

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