Siemens Energy: Green hydrogen energy leads a new round of energy reform under the goal of carbon neutrality.

In order to cope with the global climate crisis and achieve zero net emission of greenhouse gases, the goal of "carbon neutrality" is prompting countries to transform into a green zero-carbon economy. Hydrogen energy is one of the manifestations of clean energy. Because "green hydrogen" is produced by renewable energy, it is favored because of its zero carbon emission advantage from production to use.

In Magellan Province, the southernmost province of Chile, based on the abundant local wind energy resources, Siemens Energy and many partners jointly created the "Haru Oni" project, which innovated the production and application scenario of green hydrogen, that is, using renewable energy to produce climate-neutral synthetic fuel, which will not only provide clean fuel for the transportation industry with high carbon emissions, but also provide huge business opportunities for clean energy output in areas rich in renewable energy.

Dr Christian bruch, CEO of Siemens Energy Company, said: "Renewable energy will not only be produced where there is market demand. Areas rich in natural resources such as wind energy and solar energy will also become the producing areas of renewable energy. Therefore, new supply chains will emerge around the world to support the transportation of renewable energy between regions. "

Dr. Zhao Zuozhi, global chief strategy officer of new energy business of Siemens Energy Co., Ltd. and head of new energy business in Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview that the deep decarbonization of important industries such as transportation and industry is inseparable from the use of green hydrogen. In the future, hydrogen energy will play an increasingly important role in energy storage and transportation.

Global distribution of renewable energy

As an energy carrier, hydrogen energy will complement electricity in the global energy transformation. Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is considered as the development direction of hydrogen production in the future, especially by electrolysis of water with renewable energy.

At present, the traditional hydrogen production mode, whether it is "grey hydrogen" or "blue hydrogen", has the problem of high carbon emission in the process of production and use. When the electricity used in the process of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water comes entirely from renewable energy such as wind energy, solar energy, hydropower or geothermal power generation, the generated hydrogen can be called "green hydrogen".

The data shows that in 2020, the global transportation industry will emit 8.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which is the third largest carbon emission source after energy and industry, especially road traffic. Therefore, green hydrogen will help it achieve deep decarbonization in areas where carbon dioxide emission reduction is facing challenges, such as transportation, oil refining and steel industry.

"Haru Oni" project relies on the advantage of wind energy in Chile, which decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen by using wind power in electrolyzers, and then combines carbon dioxide captured from the air with green hydrogen to produce synthetic fuel. In this process, the flexible and efficient proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis technology of Siemens Energy can solve the instability of wind energy well because of its advantages of fast start-stop and full load operation in a very short time.

In the future, green hydrogen synthetic fuel will have a broad new application field. Compared with traditional fossil fuels, the carbon footprint of synthetic fuels is significantly reduced, and green products based on synthetic fuels will become a powerful choice for deep decarbonization in transportation, transportation or heating sectors.

It is understood that the "Haru Aoni" pilot project is the world's first industrial-grade commercial plant for synthesizing clean fuel. It is estimated that the plant will complete the first phase of the pilot project as early as 2022, with an annual output of about 6.5438+0.3 million liters of synthetic clean fuel. According to the project plan, the annual output targets of 55 million liters and 550 million liters will be achieved in 2024 and 2026 respectively.

Chile has superior climatic conditions for wind power generation and low power cost, so the global market production, export and local application of green hydrogen have great potential. The economic benefits of "Haru Oni" project can not only promote the economic growth of areas rich in renewable energy, but also enable industrial countries to benefit from more diversified green energy supply and stable energy costs through the clean energy transmission mechanism, thus achieving a win-win situation.

In May, 20021,Siemens Energy started the first industrial-grade solar green hydrogen energy production facility in the Middle East and North Africa. Using the solar energy in the solar park, the project can produce about 20.5 kilograms of hydrogen per hour, with a peak power of1.25mwe.

The pilot project demonstrated hydrogen storage and re-electrification from solar energy to green hydrogen. The system can provide a buffer for the production of renewable energy, which can be used for rapid response to demand growth and long-term storage. Under the background of low cost of solar photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation in this region, hydrogen is expected to become the key fuel in the future energy structure, and may bring energy export opportunities to areas rich in renewable energy resources.

According to the prediction of the International Commission on Hydrogen Energy, by 2050, hydrogen energy will account for 18% of the global energy terminal demand, creating a market value of more than 2.5 trillion US dollars, and fuel cell vehicles will account for 20%~25% of the global cars, contributing at least one-third of carbon emission reduction to the transportation industry every year.

Siemens Energy is helping customers achieve the goal of decarbonization by building the infrastructure of Power-to-X system, and making contributions to global cross-industry decarbonization. Siemens Energy has all the core technologies of sustainable and zero-carbon energy supply, from renewable energy and high-efficiency gas-fired power plants, to key equipment and solutions applied in power transmission and distribution and low-carbon energy industries, and then to efficient hydrogen production solutions from electrolyzed water.

Implement the first MW-level green hydrogen production project in China.

The position of hydrogen energy industry in the whole energy industry has been gradually improved. By the beginning of 20021,more than 30 countries in the world had published the roadmap for the development of hydrogen energy industry. Both Japan and the European Union have issued hydrogen energy strategies, and set specific targets for green hydrogen production in 2030 and hydrogen vehicle penetration rate in 2050.

Last year, the General Office of the State Council and the National Energy Administration issued the Development Plan of New Energy Automobile Industry (202 1-2035) and the Guiding Opinions on Establishing and Improving the Long-term Mechanism of Clean Energy Consumption (Draft for Comment) and other supporting policies to encourage the R&D popularization and commercial application of key technologies such as green hydrogen energy, distributed energy and fuel cells, and the hydrogen energy industry will enter a new stage of commercialization and large-scale development.

One of the difficulties in promoting the use of green hydrogen is how to reduce the cost. In this regard, Dr. Zhao Zuozhi took the decline in the cost of photovoltaic power generation as an example. One is the breakthrough of technological innovation, and the other is the effect of large-scale application. "After cultivating the demand side, it can effectively stimulate the supply side, and the scale effect will rise." He believes that the cost of green hydrogen lies in the equipment cost and electricity consumption of electrolytic cells, among which the cost of green electricity generated by renewable energy and the hours of equipment utilization are the biggest influencing factors.

In April this year, BloombergNEF released a hydrogen parity update report, which modeled and predicted the future green hydrogen cost reduction routes in 15 ~ 28 countries, and showed that by 2050, the price of green hydrogen will be lower than that of natural gas, gray hydrogen and blue hydrogen, and by that time, the cost of green hydrogen will be lower than the current 85%, lower than 1 USD/. The report also said that by 2030, the necessity of blue hydrogen project will be greatly reduced in terms of cost. Benefiting from the substantial reduction of photovoltaic costs, the reduction of green hydrogen is expected to accelerate in the future.

Driven by the goal of carbon dioxide emission peaking and carbon neutrality, 30 provinces including Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong have written hydrogen energy into the Tenth Five-Year Plan, with a total output value of nearly one trillion yuan. In addition, Beijing, Hebei, Sichuan and other provinces have also introduced implementation plans for the development of hydrogen energy industry.

Regarding the development of the domestic hydrogen energy market, Dr. Zhao Zuozhi said, "China is a fertile land. We have policies, capital, and all walks of life. Some leading enterprises are also willing to try some new technologies. There are funds, talents and markets. In the future, with the advancement of technology, the development potential of green hydrogen is huge. "

It is understood that Siemens Energy focuses on technological innovation in three major areas, one is low-carbon or zero-carbon power generation; Second, low-carbon environmental protection transmission; The third is decarbonization in the industrial field, especially in energy-intensive industries such as oil and gas, chemical industry and paper making.

Dr. Zhao Zuozhi revealed that at present, the layout of Siemens Energy in China is mainly to reduce costs and promote technology application by cooperating with leading enterprises and giving full play to their respective advantages. In the context of achieving the goal of double carbon, the industry follows the law of demand-driven supply, saves energy and reduces costs with technical solutions, and promotes the formation of application scale.

2065438+In September 2009, Siemens and State Power Investment Group ("State Power Investment Group") signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperative Development and Comprehensive Utilization of Green Hydrogen Energy. The two sides plan to further expand cooperation in green hydrogen energy projects.

In August 2020, Siemens Energy signed an agreement with Beijing Green Hydrogen Technology Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Power International Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Power"), to provide skid-mounted proton exchange membrane (PEM) pure water electrolysis hydrogen production system "Silyzer 200" for China Power Hydrogen Energy Innovation Industrial Park. Yanqing District, Beijing, where this project is located, is one of the three major competition areas for holding large-scale sports events in 2022. Siemens Energy's green hydrogen production solution will help to ensure the supply of hydrogen energy for public transport operations during and after the Games.

It is reported that this is the first MW-level green hydrogen production project implemented by Siemens Energy in China. The equipment has arrived at the site and will be put into operation soon after installation and debugging. As the core equipment of hydrogen production-hydrogenation comprehensive energy service station, Silyzer 200, a PEM pure water electrolysis hydrogen production system provided by Siemens Energy, can realize industrial-scale high-quality hydrogen production with high energy density and operating efficiency. In addition, the hydrogen production system has fast response ability, and the time from on-line startup to stable operation does not exceed 1 min, and can be directly coupled with renewable energy.

Looking forward to the future development, I think China will lead the world in green hydrogen. Now China and Europe are in the lead. Both markets have their own unique features. The two sides come together and the two locomotives pull together, which is also in line with a big framework of China-EU cooperation. "Dr. Zhao Zuozhi said.