Why Must be Hydropower
“Making hydrogen energy a key breakthrough has important significance for ensuring energy security, promoting energy system transformation, and facilitating sustainable economic and social development,” said Mao Zongqiang, a professor at the Institute of Nuclear Energy and New Energy Technology of Tsinghua University and vice chairman of the International Hydrogen Energy Association, in an interview with “Qiang Guancha.”
China is the world’s largest hydrogen producer, and the hydrogen energy industry is showing a positive development trend, having initially mastered key technologies and production processes for hydrogen production, storage and transportation, hydrogen refueling, fuel cells, and system integration. In March of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the “Long-Term Development Plan for the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)”, which clearly identified hydrogen energy as an important part of the future national energy system and a strategic emerging industry and key development direction for the future. Subsequently, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development” and the “Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Industrial Sector” were successively released, bringing important opportunities for the hydrogen energy industry.
“Hydrogen energy is an excellent bridge for the transition from fossil energy to clean energy”
“In many fields, hydrogen’s participation is crucial, and even indispensable.” Mao Zongqiang said that in clean energy, hydrogen can serve as both an industrial raw material and an energy carrier, with broad sources, no pollution, and controllable safety, making it an excellent bridge for the transition from fossil energy to clean energy.
Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of energy and achieving the goal of peaking carbon emissions and carbon neutrality is a strategic choice to ensure China’s energy security, but clean energy substitution cannot be achieved overnight and requires comprehensive planning. We adhere to the principle of “establishment before breakage” and promote in an orderly manner. Hydrogen, as an important carrier of clean energy, plays an important role in energy transformation.
Generally, based on the source of production and the carbon emissions during hydrogen production, hydrogen energy is divided into three types: gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and green hydrogen. Currently, China’s hydrogen is mainly derived from fossil energy, and there is a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions during hydrogen production, which belongs to gray hydrogen; at the same time, China also has a large amount of hydrogen produced as a byproduct of industry, namely blue hydrogen; green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy to decompose water, achieving zero carbon dioxide emissions from the source, and is a pure green new energy source.
Mao Zongqiang said that the current gray hydrogen production process is mature and cost-effective, and this advantage can be used to expand the hydrogen energy application market. With the maturity of technology and the development of industrialization, gray hydrogen is expected to gradually transition to blue hydrogen and green hydrogen after 2025. By 2030, the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable energy will have decreased to a level comparable to that of producing hydrogen from fossil energy, which will promote the scale and industrial application of green hydrogen.
“Realizing efficient production and use of hydrogen energy and creating new economic growth points”
Hydrogen energy can play an important role in many fields, such as petroleum refining, coal chemical industry, iron and steel metallurgy, power system, energy storage, transportation, and civil construction. Mao Zongqiang believes that the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry has already had a certain scale foundation, with high enthusiasm and fast commercial progress, and can gradually build a green and low-carbon industrial system based on the path of “promoting the transportation field as the leader, key technological breakthroughs, hydrogen energy infrastructure support, closely connected hydrogen supply system, and follow-up applications in other industries.”