The 4th International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Conference took place in Dalian, China on 19th, October. SNEC Hydrogen Industry Alliance was officially launched after the joint initiation and preparation by GCL New Energy Holdings Ltd, Dalian Chemical Physics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huawei Digital Power Co., Ltd. and some other research institutes and leading enterprises from the hydrogen energy industry.
Mr. Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of Global Green Energy Industry Council, Board Chairman of GCL Group has been elected the Executive Chairman of the alliance. Mr. Zhu Yufeng, Vice Chairman of the Executive Council of China Electricity Council and President of GCL Group has been elected Chief Representative of the Alliance Founders.

A type of low-carbon and zero-carbon resource, the hydrogen energy is regarded as the clean energy with the most potential for development in the 21st century. As a new round of green-and-low-carbon-oriented energy revolution is emerging and booming worldwide, it’s a call of the time to promote the integration and coordinated development of the solar energy, energy storage and hydrogen energy. In response to the national requirement of planned development of energy and resource, the Municipal Government of Dalian has co-organized the 4th International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Conference with the leading institutes, including China Renewable Energy Society, to foster technical exchange and communication within the hydrogen energy industry for better facilitating such an industrial integration and collaboration.

 

The theme of the Conference is Empower Green Hydrogen and Advance Carbon Neutrality. Topics scope covers the whole hydrogen energy chain, centering on hydrogen generation, storage, transportation, refueling and fuel cell manufacturing and application and aiming to find the technical route and the best possible solution to shift from "green electricity" to "green hydrogen", and to promote the wider use of hydrogen energy and fuel cells in transportation, portable power, energy storage, power generation and distributed systems.

 

Chairman Zhu said, we are at a transitional period from PV parity to that of solar storage parity. The cost of PV power generation is expected to decrease by 50% in the coming 3 years. GCL targets at bringing down the integral cost of power generation from renewable energy and has set as its goal to be a green hydrogen supplier and integrated service provider. The recent resolution is to supply the market with green hydrogen priced at 1 yuan per standard cubic meter. To realize this, GCL is committed to make continuous efforts to integrate low-cost photovoltaic power supply systems, to upscale electrolytic water hydrogen production systems, and to improve the efficiency of multi-dimensional energy conversion systems through continuous R&D and innovation in the fields of "wind, solar, grid, storage, cloud" and multi-energy complementation, materials technology, etc.

 

The 4th International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Conference was closed on 19th, Nov. As the newly-elected Executive Chairman of SNEC Hydrogen Industry Alliance, Mr. Zhu stated that he will live up to the trust that the governments, industrial institutes and the society have placed on him. He will be devoted to the Alliance, shouldering the responsibilities and obligations as described by the Alliance Charter, providing attentive service to the Chief of Founders, uniting founders and founding institutes and leading the industry onto the path of faster and stronger development.

 

Mr. Zhu said that President Xi Jinping has recently called for continuous efforts in advancing industrial and energy restructuring, vigorously developing renewable resources, speeding up the planning and building of large-scale wind power and PV bases in desert and Gobi areas. Under this circumstance, green power, green hydrogen, and zero-carbon industrial parks are developed as new business formats, new models, and new combinations, forming the new landscape of the zero-carbon era. Restricted by the double-control energy consumption policy, large-scale application of the green hydrogen technology can alter China’s energy supply structure and industrial energy consumption mode. With the gradual declining of the cost in PV power, wind power, energy storage and electrolytic cell, the average unit cost of green power is expected to be reduced to around 0.1 yuan per kilowatt hour by 2025, which will help in turn bring down the green hydrogen generation cost to approximately 1 yuan per cubic meter. By around 2028, parity price between green hydrogen and gray hydrogen can be achieved in China’s low-priced photovoltaic grid areas; by 2030, green hydrogen is expected to have replaced gray hydrogen in most areas; by 2050, my China’s electrolytic hydrogen from renewable energy may account for over 70% of the total hydrogen supply.

In compliance with the 14th Five-year Plan with a focus on net-zero emissions, GCL Group has included hydrogen energy into its development portfolio, striving for an integral growth of green power, crystalline silicon, perovskite, energy story technology etc. GCL is currently working with large central enterprises to build a new zero-emission industrial system, integrating green power, green hydrogen and green industry. Large-scale, highly efficient and reliable production and application systems of hydrogen energy are being constructed by making full use of the wind, solar and sand resources in the desert and Gobi area.

In the northeast coast of China, Dalian has set itself as a pilot site of generating electrolytic hydrogen from renewable energy like wind power and nuclear power, seeking for technical breakthroughs of green, low-cost and large-scale hydrogen generation from renewable resources. In the west, Baotou Inner Mongolia and Erdos are the base camps for green energy development. A green hydrogen corridor is being built from the west to the east, signaling the arrival of a green hydrogen era. Given the contradiction between energy supply and demand caused by “rich-west-and-poor-east” energy distribution in China, we suggest here that pertinent government authorities step up the planning on energy transportation from both ends, conduct feasibility research on the grand hydrogen energy corridor, advance dots connecting in industrial chains from west to east, and further to all-round application, hence a path of sound, steady and far-reaching development.

 

Mr. Shi Dinghuan, former Counsellor of the State Council, former Secretary General of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Honorary President of SNEC Conference, Mr. Liu Zhongmin, Academician of the Chinese Engineering Academy, Director of Dalian Chemical Physics Institute, along with some other experts were present at the conference and delivered insightful speeches. Other attendees including Head of UNDP, IREA, some international authoritative academicians, experts and scholars and certain senior analysts in related fields also gave keynote speeches.