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Great story on the next clean energy revolution: hydrogen. Numbers for scale:
To use hydrogen to make all of China's steel, would require 42.5 Mt/y of hydrogen.
Generating that would require another 750 GW of wind plus another 750 GW of PV. https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/europe-vies-with-china-for-clean-hydrogen-superpower-status
To use hydrogen to make all of China's steel, would require 42.5 Mt/y of hydrogen.
Generating that would require another 750 GW of wind plus another 750 GW of PV. https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/europe-vies-with-china-for-clean-hydrogen-superpower-status
Recent years saw about 30 GW/y for both wind and PV.
PV could arguably accelerate: we have seen years with 50+ GW installed
China's top wind year saw about 35 GW installed. This might change with offshore picking up speed.
https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2020-q2-pv-installations-utility-and-distributed-by-province/
https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2020-q2-wind-power-installations-and-production-by-province/
PV could arguably accelerate: we have seen years with 50+ GW installed
China's top wind year saw about 35 GW installed. This might change with offshore picking up speed.
https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2020-q2-pv-installations-utility-and-distributed-by-province/
https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2020-q2-wind-power-installations-and-production-by-province/
At current pace of about 60 GW/y, we would need about 25 years of installations before we can generate enough hydrogen.
And that is if all our efforts go into steel, ignoring other industries, electric mobility, or decarbonizing current power demand in the meantime
And that is if all our efforts go into steel, ignoring other industries, electric mobility, or decarbonizing current power demand in the meantime
Assumptions:
1270 Mt iron ore consumed in China in 2018, with 62% pure iron content, World steel in figures of the world steel association.
3 mol H2 to reduce 1 mol Fe
H2 energy content of 142 MJ/kg
75% electrolyzer efficiency
1270 Mt iron ore consumed in China in 2018, with 62% pure iron content, World steel in figures of the world steel association.
3 mol H2 to reduce 1 mol Fe
H2 energy content of 142 MJ/kg
75% electrolyzer efficiency
Energy content of 42 Mt of H2 is about 1700 TWh.
At assumed electrolyzer efficiency of 75% you need 2,300 TWh of clean power.
That is about 3.5x 2019 Chinese output of wind and PV combined.
Current Chinese capacity is about 220 GW of wind and PV each. https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2019-electricity-other-energy-statistics-preliminary/
At assumed electrolyzer efficiency of 75% you need 2,300 TWh of clean power.
That is about 3.5x 2019 Chinese output of wind and PV combined.
Current Chinese capacity is about 220 GW of wind and PV each. https://chinaenergyportal.org/en/2019-electricity-other-energy-statistics-preliminary/
