The cost of hydrogen production from renewable energy water electrolysis is mainly concentrated on electricity prices and hydrogen energy transportation. Industry insiders said that when the household electricity price is around 0.25 yuan/kWh, the cost of hydrogen production from renewable energy water electrolysis will be equivalent to that of traditional fossil energy. For places with high electricity prices, the electricity cost of electrolysis of water alone is enough to make the electricity price affordable. Renewable energy electrolysis water hydrogen production companies are "daunted".
The northwest and southwest regions of my country are rich in renewable resources and have low electricity prices. Electricity prices are generally lower than the national average, which is conducive to the development of renewable energy for hydrogen production through water electrolysis, which can significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen production. Within a certain range, it can even be equivalent to hydrogen production from fossil energy.
Although areas with abundant wind power can meet the cost requirements of hydrogen production from renewable energy through water electrolysis, hydrogen energy absorption capacity is relatively limited for areas with abundant renewable energy. Therefore, the hydrogen produced needs to be transported to other cities where hydrogen energy is widely used. Hydrogen transportation is costly and inefficient. At present, the more common method of hydrogen transportation in China is high-pressure hydrogen storage tank trailer transportation, but its transportation efficiency is extremely low, only 1-2%.
As the distance increases, its transportation costs will still rise significantly, driven by labor costs and oil costs. If liquid hydrogen tankers are used to transport hydrogen, although the transportation efficiency is significantly improved, the transportation cost of hydrogen accounts for a large part of the terminal hydrogen price, which greatly hinders the large-scale development of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water using renewable energy.
In response to the problems of high hydrogen storage costs and difficult transportation, some local companies have invented liquid solar fuel projects and developed storage methods for hydrogenating carbon dioxide to produce methanol, providing new ways for hydrogen transportation. This storage method can solve high-pressure transportation, storage costs and safety issues, and achieve the goals of carbon dioxide recovery and full-process cleaning.
Regarding the future development of hydrogen production through water electrolysis, in recent years, the development of hydrogen production through water electrolysis using renewable energy has been accelerating regardless of the number and scale of projects. In the long run, economics is the key to the sustainable development of the future renewable energy market for hydrogen production through electrolysis of water. In order to realize the economy, in addition to government policy support, renewable energy companies that produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water must also continue to explore the hydrogen energy development business model of the entire industry chain, find out the uses of hydrogen energy, and break through the technical bottleneck of hydrogen production by electrolyzing water. Industrialization will be realized soon.