LONGi H2, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China's solar giant LONGi Green Energy Technology, officially launched its new generation of alkaline electrolyzed water H₂ production equipment ALK Hi1 in Beijing, continuously exploring the lowest of energy consumption and redefining the height of energy efficiency.

Based on the rich experience in the photovoltaic field, LONGi found that, like LCOE of photovoltaic, the core path is to reduce the electricity consumption of H₂ production units, that is, for the same electricity consumption to produce more H₂. The lower the levelized cost of H₂ (LCOH) is, the more cost-efficient green H₂ will be.

Electricity price and energy consumption per unit of H₂ production are the two variables that contribute to the highest sensitivity of LCOH. The full-load DC power consumption of ALK Hi1 can be as low as 4.3kwh/Nm³. It is even lower for ALK Hi1 Plus, down to 4.1kwh/Nm³, to adapt to H₂ production scenarios demanding higher utilization hours. It even hits 4.0kwh/Nm³ when the current density is 2500A/㎡.

Research also shows that full-load DC power consumption of the global electrolyzed water H₂ production industry, including alkaline water H₂ production technology (ALK) and proton exchange membrane electrolysis water (PEM) power, is basically in the range of 4.5-4.6kwh/Nm³. Li Can, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this is already a comparatively good energy efficiency performance at the industrial level.

So far, LONGi ALK Hi1 series products have passed empirical testing, and their performance has been certified by third-party authorities such as Det Norske Veritas and DEKRA Testing and Certification (Shanghai) Ltd. and measured in accordance with the national standard of GB-32311-2015. LONGi ALK Hi1 series products are rated to have the level 1 energy efficiency of H₂ production system.

LONGi ALK Hi1 series products have the characteristics of high efficiency and high production capacity, which means reduction of DC power consumption by more than 10%, and the LCOH of H₂ production in different scenarios will be greatly cut down. That is, for 0.1kwh/Nm³'s reduction in H₂ production DC power consumption, depending on the number of system utilization hours, H₂ LCOH can be reduced by 1.8%-2.2%, which is equivalent to a reduction of the initial investment of H₂ production equipment by 10% to 25%.

In the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the trend of energy development will gradually shift from carbon-based energy to silicon-based energy, and then to H₂ energy. Li Zhenguo, Founder & President of LONGi, said that solar power has become the world's most economical clean energy, and photovoltaic H₂ production is a real duel-clean energy solution.