China's largest offshore solar-hydrogen farm starts operation

[Caribbeans]

China's largest offshore solar-hydrogen farm starts operation

Xinhua | 2025-01-04

A large integrated solar-hydrogen farm, located in the tidal flat area of eastern China, has officially commenced operations, according to its owner, Guohua Energy Investment Co., Ltd., under the CHN Energy Investment Group.

The largest of its kind in China, the energy farm is officially known as the Rudong offshore photovoltaic-hydrogen energy storage project. It has been successfully connected to the grid and began operations on Dec. 31, 2024, in Rudong County, Jiangsu Province, CHN Energy said in a press release on Friday.

This marks the launch of China's first comprehensive energy utilization and coastal ecological management project, integrating photovoltaic power generation, hydrogen production, hydrogen refueling and energy storage, according to the press release.

With a total installed capacity of 400 megawatts, the Rudong project, spanning 4,300 mu (about 287 hectares), features a newly constructed 220 kV onshore booster station, a 60 MW/120 MWh energy storage facility, and a hydrogen production and refueling station with a production capacity of 1,500 standard cubic meters per hour and hydrogen refueling capability of 500 kilograms per day.

Once fully operational in 2025, the project is expected to generate an average of 468 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, equivalent to saving approximately 151,000 tonnes of standard coal each year...more
https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/2501040786/

As sure as the Sun rises in the East:
Some clown will say "There is no green hydrogen"
and/or "green hydrogen is not green"
Good thing China doesn't GAF

[NNadir]

1. The picture is rather disgusting; given the industrialization of an ecosystem for a nefarious purpose, to promote...

...the hydrogen scam, the sole purpose of which is to greenwash fossil fuels.

The picture should disgust anyone who is an environmentalist.

The facts about hydrogen in China, not from a fossil fuel greenwashing scammer, but from people called "scientists," Chinese scientists:

Currently, nearly all hydrogen in China is either produced directly from fossil fuels (55% from coal gasification and 14% from steam methane reforming (SMR)) or as a byproduct of petroleum refining (28%), with only 1% coming from water electrolysis. (2) Producing 1 kg of coal- or SMR-based hydrogen emits roughly 19 and 10 kg of CO₂, respectively. (3) In 2020, hydrogen production from fossil fuels in China emitted approximately 322Tg of CO₂, equivalent to 25% of total CO₂ emissions from industrial processes, a number expected to rise with increasing hydrogen demand. (4) Industrial processes include production of nonmetallic mineral products, chemical, and metal products, as well as production and consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. (4)

EST: Chinese Hydrogen Production Is Making Climate Change Worse.

(cf: Subsidizing Grid-Based Electrolytic Hydrogen Will Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Coal Dominated Power Systems Liqun Peng, Yang Guo, Shangwei Liu, Gang He, and Denise L. Mauzerall Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (12), 5187-5195)

[Think. Again.]

3. Yeah, energy production can be ugly...

Ever see an oil refinery or nuclear plant? Their hideous.

Luckly, Solar plants like this don't do any permanent damage to the land they sit above and some people even continue farming beneath them. And the Green Hydrogen (You do see the solar panels in the picture, right?) is better as a storage medium than mining for lithium for batteries is too.

[Think. Again.]

2. The U.S is sooooo far behind on clean energy tech.