The future of hydrogen energy
President Xi proposed the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality at the 75th anniversary meeting of the United Nations in 2020. Strive to reduce carbon emissions by 25% compared with 2005 by 2030, and the proportion of non-fossil energy to reach 25%. By 2030, it will reach 1.2 billion kilowatts of wind and solar installed capacity. At present, my country's wind and solar installed capacity is only about 300 million kilowatts, which means that it will increase by 3-4 times by 2030.
How to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals? The first is to control the total amount of fossil energy; the second is to improve the efficiency of the existing energy system; the third is to accelerate the development of renewable energy.
my country's energy consumption is characterized by less oil, lack of gas, and more coal. Oil and natural gas imports account for more than 20% of my country's total energy, so my country's energy security issues are very prominent. At present, my country's per capita carbon dioxide emissions have exceeded the major countries of the European Union and Japan, second only to the United States. Therefore, our carbon emission situation is very serious.
The resource endowment of renewable energy in my country is about 2.7 times of the total energy in my country. The supply of renewable energy is unstable, and energy storage is needed to solve the problem of stable supply, so we consider using hydrogen energy to solve the problem of energy storage. Hydrogen comes from water and goes back to water. Using hydrogen to solve the problem of energy storage can not only solve the raw material problems of metallurgy, chemical industry and other industries that cannot be solved by a single power grid, but also solve the problem of large-scale power storage in my country.
Incorporating hydrogen energy into the energy system can solve the main problems of my country's energy sources, such as the high proportion of fossil energy, high dependence on oil and natural gas imports, and the consumption of intermittent renewable energy such as scenery.
In the future, large-scale renewable energy volume can develop large-scale hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and electric hydrogen-electric technology. We can use wind power, solar power, and then electrolyze water to produce hydrogen, and then use hydrogen storage for hydrogen fuel cell power generation. This electro-hydrogen power system generates electricity during the day, partly produces hydrogen, and partly supplies it to the grid; at night, it uses hydrogen to generate electricity and then supplies it to the grid. In the future, this method can be used to solve the problem of large-scale electricity consumption in my country.
I think that in the future, people will usher in a hydrogen power society, mainly the "two grids" system of grid + hydrogen grid. The electricity is directly connected to the grid after being generated by solar or wind energy, and the excess electricity is used for hydrogen production. When renewable energy is not available, hydrogen is used to generate electricity and supply it to the grid. Another part of the hydrogen can be used in transportation, chemical and other fields.
In the society of the "two networks" system, various applications such as hydrogen power generation, hydrogen energy transportation, hydrogen steelmaking, hydrogen entering thousands of households, and hydrogen chemical industry will appear. The transportation sector accounts for about 10% of the energy system, and will become one of the main scenarios for hydrogen energy applications in the future. Hydrogen energy vehicles and electric vehicles will complement each other. Electric vehicles are the main vehicles for short distances or short distances, and hydrogen energy vehicles are the main ones for long distances or high power. So they will only cooperate with each other and will not be competitors.
Judging from the situation of major developed countries, the more energy-deficient countries are, the better the development of hydrogen energy. Japan is actively developing hydrogen energy, Germany is also developing faster, and the United States has no shortage of energy, so the development is intermittent.
my country is still in the initial stage of the development of the hydrogen energy industry, and will enter a rapid development channel around 2025. Around 2035, it is expected that the hydrogen energy industry will enter a stable development period, and may begin to use, produce and store hydrogen on a large scale. By around 2050, the hydrogen energy industry will enter a mature stage. About 50% of the transportation vehicles are hydrogen energy vehicles, and household energy such as heating also depends on hydrogen energy.
The hydrogen energy society will definitely come, which is a trend in the future. Under the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, my country will unswervingly adhere to the green hydrogen route, expand the industrial scale and application of green hydrogen, and further reduce the cost of green hydrogen.
The energy revolution is a long process. From coal to oil, from oil to electricity, the transition period is basically more than 100 years, and hydrogen energy is no exception. The shortest is 50 years, and the longer may be 100 years. This is the future development trend. In the future, the hydrogen energy industry will have a market of more than 10 trillion, which deserves our attention.