As of the end of 2021, 217 hydrogen production projects from water electrolysis have been built around the world, with a total scale of 372 MW. The world's largest single-plant scale and single-unit largest capacity electrolysis water hydrogen production project, and the solar water electrolysis hydrogen production comprehensive demonstration project was completed and put into operation in Ningxia, China. Domestic companies have planned 161 renewable energy hydrogen production projects, of which 12 have been put into production, with a total hydrogen production capacity of about 23,100 tons per year, and 22 projects are under construction. Recently, a report entitled "Key to a New Era of Green Hydrogen Energy: China's 2030 Renewable Hydrogen 100 Development Roadmap" announced the latest development of the green hydrogen industry. The report was jointly released by the Rocky Mountain Institute and the China Hydrogen Alliance.

The number and scale of green hydrogen projects are accelerating, but compared with other hydrogen production methods, it is still difficult to become the mainstream. By the end of 2021, hydrogen production from water electrolysis accounted for only 1.42% of my country's hydrogen energy production. How to further expand production? The report puts forward an idea: relying on the construction of large-scale wind and solar bases, large-scale development and application of green hydrogen.

The larger the installed capacity, the lower the cost of hydrogen production

The biggest obstacle to hydrogen production from renewable energy is expensive, and the faster the installed capacity expands, the faster the overall hydrogen production cost will drop. Large-scale development in the form of a large base has precisely such conditions and advantages. Wang Zhe, director of the Rocky Mountain Research Institute, said that from the perspective of the existing production capacity distribution, the total renewable energy production capacity in Northwest, North China, Northeast and Southwest regions accounts for nearly 65%, and there is potential and space for large-scale development of green hydrogen. "In addition, the large base model is conducive to enhancing the overall importance of development enterprises, design agencies, EPC system integrators, key product component suppliers, etc. on project risks, and helps the regulatory authorities to effectively explore relevant safety regulations. On this basis Experience, and then continue to expand the scale of demonstrations in an orderly manner.

The construction of large-scale scenic bases focusing on desert, Gobi and desert areas is in full swing. As of May, the scale of construction has reached 85 million kilowatts. "The second batch of projects is also advancing the preliminary work. Among the currently planned 262 GW projects, photovoltaic installed capacity accounts for 71%. The development of green hydrogen is inseparable from green electricity, and large-scale development based on large bases can Let the hydrogen source be guaranteed." said Xue Weiru, head of the marketing department of Xi'an LONGi Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

Xue Weiru said that as a large-scale green hydrogen equipment and solution supplier, LONGi has launched relevant deployments. On the basis of the 500 MW capacity of electrolyzed water hydrogen production equipment in 2021, 1.5 GW of capacity will be achieved by the end of 2022, and it is expected to exceed 5 GW of capacity by 2025. At the same time, our alkaline water hydrogen production system has reached the world's leading level. The combination of high current density and high hydrogen production can effectively reduce system investment and adapt to the characteristics of large-scale renewable energy hydrogen production that respond quickly to power quality and load. System load response time is in milliseconds.

The idea of a large base is also planned and implemented in some renewable energy resource-rich areas. For example, the recently released "Ordos Hydrogen Energy Industry" proposed that the new local hydrogen production capacity is mainly based on zero-carbon electrolysis, including key projects such as Elion Kubuqi Green Hydrogen Demonstration Base.

It is necessary to solve the problem of balance between the production end and the user end

The breakthrough on the production side has been found, but it is not enough in terms of cost reduction. The development of the green hydrogen industry is inseparable from the renewable energy power system, but the latter still faces challenges such as stability and large-scale cross-regional power transmission. Therefore, on-site hydrogen production and on-site consumption close to areas rich in renewable energy are important considerations for the development of green hydrogen in the short term. Xue Weiru said.

The report further gives examples, such as chemical industry, metal smelting and other application scenarios, production requires continuous operation of industrial processes, and a continuous supply of hydrogen energy for more than 8,000 hours per year. At this stage, the operating hours of a single photovoltaic power station are mostly between 1000-2000 hours, and the onshore wind power is 2000-3000 hours, and the fluctuation is relatively large. Even if wind-solar complementation is considered, it is necessary to combine power grid power to produce hydrogen in order to improve the stability of supply. If large-scale electricity or hydrogen storage is adopted, the economy will be greatly reduced. In the early stage of renewable hydrogen, it is difficult to fully meet the demand independently. While developing the hydrogen production model of large bases, it is necessary to take into account the establishment of the first and the second to break. Wang Zhe said.

In the opinion of Yan Donglei, deputy general manager of Beijing Huanyu Jinghui Jingcheng Gas Technology Co., Ltd., the idea of relying on the idea of producing hydrogen from the wind and light base needs to solve the balance of production and use at the same time. "Hydrogen energy applications are mostly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other cities. In order for green hydrogen produced in the northwest, southwest and other places to reach the end of use, the storage and transportation links are very critical. At present, there is no special hydrogen transmission pipeline network, and liquid hydrogen It is also not economical. The storage and transportation cost accounts for about 30% of the total cost, the middle link is stuck, and the problem of the high cost of using hydrogen energy has not been fundamentally solved.”

Zhao Jishi, Dean of Foshan Environment and Energy Research Institute, believes that the large-scale base model is not "once and for all", and its advantages and disadvantages coexist according to different application scenarios. "For example, chemical industry is one of the sub-sectors most closely related to hydrogen energy supply and demand. There are a number of large chemical projects in the northwest region, which have urgent needs for energy conservation and carbon reduction, laying the foundation for green hydrogen replacement, and can also play a role in the nearby consumption of green hydrogen. However, in the field of transportation, the application terminals are distributed in a point-like manner. If the bottleneck of storage and transportation has not been broken through, the large base model is not applicable, and distributed hydrogen production is more practical.”

Form each applicable pattern in different regions

Before 2030, green hydrogen development proposes to adopt a regionalization-based, close-to-point-to-point pattern, and to form their own development models in different regions and different bases.” Wang Zhe further proposed that during this period, traditional industries need to be transformed and upgraded. Regions that match the natural endowment of renewable resources are expected to become important green hydrogen development sites, with relatively large installed capacity and low-cost renewable hydrogen. Regions such as North China where renewable resources have local advantages but are not evenly distributed , the "centralized hydrogen production + near-medium-distance transportation" mode can be considered. "On the one hand, promote the coupling of hydrogen energy with existing energy resources, improve resource utilization efficiency, and minimize the cost of hydrogen production; on the other hand, through medium-distance transportation , to meet the economic requirements in traffic and other scenarios.

Xue Weiru proposed to consider establishing a national-level large-scale green hydrogen "leader" demonstration base in areas with the advantages of renewable energy power generation resources and the ability to absorb green hydrogen, to encourage the promotion of advanced product technologies and open up the industrial chain to achieve manufacturing Integration of storage and transportation.

Compared with photovoltaic power generation and wind power projects, the industrial supporting and market-oriented applications are relatively mature. The green hydrogen industry is in the exploratory stage as a whole, and there is still a long way to go before large-scale industrialization and commercial development. Therefore, it is also inseparable from relevant Policy Support. Xue Weiru suggested that the industry should clarify the green hydrogen standards as soon as possible, as well as the proportion of green hydrogen in the future development stage, and further refine the development path of the green hydrogen industry. For example, improving the role and value of green hydrogen in industrial decarbonization, encouraging the electrolysis of water with renewable energy to produce hydrogen, etc. At the same time, green hydrogen management is incorporated into the energy management system, and green hydrogen price policies are formulated.

Yan Donglei also said that hydrogen energy companies and renewable energy companies should join forces to give full play to their respective advantages and make the industrial chain longer, more complete and stronger. The latter has green power resources, but hydrogen production has relatively high requirements on safety, management, personnel, etc., while the former has expertise. On the premise of ensuring safety, strengthen technological innovation and drive the high-quality development of the green hydrogen industry.Editor/XingWentao