As the world shifts to green energy, there is a big question of how we will address the variability of green energy generation in periods of peak electricity demand & how to decarbonize sectors that can’t be electrified.
The solution to these questions seem to be green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol. I will just talk about Mingyang’s effort in energy transition today, since they have the most complete plan in exploring energy transition. To start off, Mingyang is a wind turbine maker. It already builds the world’s largest offshore turbine (18MW). It is also working on 11MW onshore turbine & 22MW offshore turbine
As Mingyang develops ever larger turbines, it is also working on innovative ways to improve economics of offshore wind turbine. One way is to install PVs in the same wind farms to harvest both wind and solar energy, so it developed solar panels
Another way is to operate fish farming in the same offshore wind farm, so it developed its own fish farming jacket & recently just harvested fish for first time. In fact it pioneered the idea of “offshore wind” + “marine ranch” + “H2 from sea water”
But as time goes on, the project likes the recent Qinzhou-4 wind farm are happening further and further offshore in order to capture more bountiful wind resource. Connecting to grid becomes too expensive & complicated for offshore turbine projects as we get even further out. See all the components to Qinzhou-4 already
For this & other reasons, Mingyang got into Hydrogen. Last October, it produced the world’s largest & most economical ALK electrolysis (1500-2500NM3/h)
Looking ahead, it is also getting into PEM electrolysis, direct sea water electrolysis and integrated wind/solar H2 production solution
It’s ambition for Hydrogen goes beyond just electrolysis, it has a full lineup of hydrogen related products for different projects
Including onshore wind/solar generating Hydrogen, hydrogen refueling station, wind/solar generating H2 to create ammonia, offshore wind to Hydrogen, auto transport of hydrogen & industrial park using renewable generated hydrogen products.
It already has a partner trialing out integrated H2/Ammonia storage project from Wind & Solar. It also has a integrated project where it provides the storage containers for H2. So, it is looking to participate in every aspect of Hydrogen energy transition.
And most recently, it just developed the world’s 1st 30MW pure Hydrogen gas turbine, which can also run on a mixture of Hydrogen and ammonia.
The Gas turbine is called Jupiter-1 and was designed to generate 0-carbon electricity from green hydrogen/ammonia. While thermal efficiency is unclear, this opens door for Hydrogen to be stored up to be used during peak usage period to generate electricity or to be exported or used in regions where green energy cannot easily be installed. As technology improve, the energy efficiency will also improve. At some point in the future, maybe green hydrogen can even compete on cost with carbon taxed natural gas.
But even beyond that, Mingyang has tested this new GT with aeroengine and marine turbine test bench. This opens the door for future usage on aircraft and shipping. In fact, Mingyang has plan now to build a 2 million ton refueling station for shipping in Hainan (I don’t have the exact details here). Either way, the market for decarbonization is huge if we can get the efficiency up and cost down. Beyond that, there is a huge market for sustainable aviation fuel (or green jet fuel) that can be generated from Green Hydrogen through methanol as shown below
While I have yet to see Mingyang get into this field, I have seen a project like this announced recently in Heilongjiang province for 400,000 ton of SAF. I have also seen a deal where Goldwind supplies 500KT of Green methanol to Maersk per year. This seems like something that Mingyang, Sany, Envision and other Chinese wind turbine makers will also want to get into. The potential revenue for energy transition is huge and all the major wind turbine makers are chasing it, since selling wind turbines outside of China requires dealing with geopolitics, protectionism and high shipping/construction costs. Producing energy in ready to use format effectively makes these companies competitors of “hydrocarbon cartels from the Middle East and Russia”. I think in the future, the demand for clean transportable energy form (H2, ammonia and methanol), the transportation technology and fuel usage technology will be just as large as the power generation market itself (or even greater)
Mingyang now has the strategy of 风光氢储燃 (wind, solar, hydrogen, storage and burn). Meaning, it will not only build wind turbines, but also supply solar power, build the ESS for large projects, hydrogen/ammonia generation equipment, the vehicles that transport clean energy and the equipment that burn the clean energy. That’s the holistic methodology we need to lower carbon footprint into a sustainable world.
Thank you for your interesting posts always