On February 14, 2023, LONGi Hydrogen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China’s solar giant LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (LONGi), officially launched a new generation of alkaline electrolyzed water hydrogen production equipment ALK Hi1 to the world in Beijing, continuously exploring the lowest of energy consumption and redefining the height of energy efficiency.

From Photovoltaic LCOE to Hydrogen LCOH

“The history of the development of human civilization is also the history of energy development”. In the context of “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality”, the trend of energy development will gradually shift from carbon-based energy to silicon-based energy, and then to hydrogen energy. Li Zhenguo, President of LONGi, said that solar power has become the world's most economical clean energy, and "photovoltaic hydrogen production" is a real “duel-clean” energy solution.

Economy is the main factor hindering the development of green hydrogen. Based on the rich experience in the photovoltaic field, LONGi found that, similar to LCOE of PV, the core path is to reduce the electricity consumption of hydrogen production units, that is, for the same electricity consumption to produce more hydrogen. The lower the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) is, the more cost-efficient green hydrogen will be.

Minimum 4.0 kWh/Nm³! Continuously Lowering Energy Costs

Electricity price and energy consumption per unit of hydrogen production are the two variables that contribute to the highest sensitivity of LCOH. The full-load DC power consumption of ALK Hi1 can be as low as 4.3kwh/Nm³. It is even lower for ALK Hi1 Plus, down to 4.1kwh/Nm³, in order to adapt to hydrogen production scenarios demanding higher utilization hours. It even hits 4.0kwh/Nm³ when the ampere density is 2500A/㎡.

Research also shows that full-load DC power consumption of the global electrolyzed water hydrogen production industry, including alkaline water hydrogen production technology (ALK) and proton exchange membrane electrolysis water (PEM) power, is basically in the range of 4.5-4.6kwh/Nm³. Li Can, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this is already a comparatively good energy efficiency performance at the industrial level. If the price of renewable electricity is reduced to 2 cents a kilowatt-hour and the DC power consumption reaches 4.3kwh/Nm³, it costs one dollar per piece of hydrogen, which is almost close to the cost of hydrogen from coal, and even lower than the 2023 target set by Europe and the United States.

So far, LONGi ALK Hi1 series products have passed empirical testing, and their performance has been certified by third-party authorities such as Det Norske Veritas and DEKRA Testing and Certification (Shanghai) Ltd., and measured in accordance with the national standard of GB-32311-2015. LONGi ALK Hi1 series products are rated to have the level 1 energy efficiency of hydrogen production system.

Customer-oriented and High Business Value

What does it mean to reduce 0.1kwh of electricity consumption?

Based on data calculations, LONGi ALK Hi1 series products have the characteristics of high efficiency and high profit capacity, which means reduction of DC power consumption by more than 10%, and the LCOH of hydrogen production in different scenarios will be greatly cut down. That is, for 0.1kwh/Nm³’s reduction in hydrogen production DC power consumption, depending on the number of system utilization hours, hydrogen LCOH can be reduced by 1.8%-2.2%, which is equivalent to a reduction of the initial investment of hydrogen production equipment by 10% to 25%.

Through the comparison of different scenarios, Ma Jun, President of LONGi Hydrogen Energy, introduced that LONGi ALK Hi1, with advanced technology, are of great product business value. Taking a green hydrogen project in northwest China as an example, the power resources include both solar power and Purchased green power in which ,the annual running time of the hydrogen production system of LONGi ALK Hi1 is about 4300 hours. In this case, hydrogen LCOH is reduced by 2.7%, thus the annual electricity cost is saved by 6.4$, which is equivalent to reducing the initial investment by 25%.

Take a project in North America where PV is paired with hydropower and power trading, for example, in that active market, the project utilization hours are 6,000 hours. If Hi1 Plus products are applied, the LCOH of hydrogen production can be 6.4% lower, which is more cost efficient, compared with the entire initial investment in hydrogen production equipment.

LONGi Hydrogen, adheres to the "First Principles" to carry out scientific and technological exploration, and is dedicated to becoming a world-leading large-scale green hydrogen production equipment and solution provider.

About LONGi

Founded in 2000, LONGi is committed to being the world’s leading solar technology company, focusing on customer-driven value creation for full scenario energy transformation.

Under its mission of “making the best of solar energy to build a green world”, LONGi has dedicated itself to technology innovation and established five business sectors, covering mono silicon wafers cells and modules, commercial & industrial distributed solar solutions, green energy solutions and hydrogen equipment. The company has honed its capabilities to provide green energy and has more recently, also embraced green hydrogen products and solutions to support global zero carbon development. www.longi.com

Company：LONGi Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
Contact Person:Mengdi Han
Email: hydrogenmkt@longi.com
Website: https://www.longi.com/en/
Telephone:029-85767999
City：Xi'an