With extremely populated regions, China creates green hydrogen project using solar energy to reduce more than 500 thousand tons of CO₂

China has been developing a series of projects with the aim of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions on the environment due to population growth and its climate goals by 2030. Investments in renewable energy in electric cars are increasingly common. 

With the regions of China increasingly populous, the State has developed a project in which it considers using solar and wind energy to remove H2 from water molecules and, therefore, produce energy based on green hydrogen. This project aims to reduce at least 500 thousand tons of carbon dioxide in the environment per year. “Green hydrogen” is produced using electricity from renewable sources to break water into its two constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

According to the government, green hydrogen can be used to serve as fuel for vehicles, and this is a way to overcome the shortage of energy in the most populous and scarce parts. The green fuel will be transported over long distances and will be economically optimized to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources, such as coal which, this year, showed an accumulated increase above 103%. 

Discover the project in Kuqa, in the southern region of China

The factory located in KUQA makes use of renewable energy, whether wind or solar, to remove hydrogen molecules from water and, therefore, use them as a form of fuel. This new factory is part of the Peak Carbon Dioxide Emissions, project created to reduce CO2 emissions in the environment. In short, it is estimated that the government can produce more than 20 thousand tons of H2 per year.  

The size of the site where construction is taking place, financed by the State, reaches around 630 hectares, which is related to 900 soccer fields, according to the EVWind.  “The Xinjiang region is rich in sunlight resources, making it a perfect place to explore green hydrogen production. The cost of producing hydrogen here from photovoltaic electrolysis is only 18 yuan ($2,67) per kilogram,” said Cao Jie, manager of Sinopec who works on site, to CCTV.

Ling Yiqun, another manager of the state-owned energy giant, I addu: “We estimate that in the future, the entire oil industry will create a market of more than 100 billion yuan (US$14,8 billion) by replacing gray hydrogen with green hydrogen.”

Li Bo, from the National Energy Administration of China, said that about 1 kg of green hydrogen can produce the same energy provided by 1 gallon of gasoline, not to mention that its production cost is extremely reduced by more than half.

 Beijing, the Chinese capital, announced, at the beginning of August, a new plan with the aim of showing its energy transition process by the year 2030. It is estimated that, in the future, more than 20% of all the energy on the planet is made up of green hydrogen. 

What is the difference between green hydrogen and gray hydrogen?

Green hydrogen is always produced based on renewable and sustainable energies, meanwhile, gray hydrogen is generally manufactured based on non-renewable products, mostly with the use of oil and coal. Therefore, the green version is said to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.