One of the world's largest solar PV manufacturers, LONGi Green Energy Technology is serious about entering the hydrogen production space after it was reported the Chinese group has registered a company officially calling it Xi'an LONGi Hydrogen Technology Co. Ltd.
Reporting the same, Chinese solar PV publication Solarzoom said the new entity was registered by LONGi on March 31, 2021 and mentioned its shareholders as Xi'an LONGi Green Energy Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd, and Shanghai Zhuqueying Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership.
In a separate news, Solarzoom quoted LONGi's Founder and President and also the President of LONGi Hydrogen Energy Li Zhenhuo as saying that his company has conducted in-depth research and development projects over past 3 years, with well-known domestic and overseas scientific research institutions and authoritative experts on green hydrogen production through electrolysis. Having accumulated hydrogen technology knowledge, the next step for the group will be the 'industrialization' of hydrogen energy. And then, its massive experience in solar PV technology is likely to come in handy in LONGi's green hydrogen production plans.
Calling it the world's largest solar company by market capitalization of about $52 billion as on April 2, 2021, Bloomberg said Li Zhenguo is the chairman of Xi'an Longi Hydrogen Technology.
Longi is expanding into several directions. In August 2020, LONGi had announced another strategic investment by launching its building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) product line (see China PV News Snippets: LONGi BIPV, Trina Solar).
Like several other nations of the world such as Australia and collectively by Europe, China too plans to explore green hydrogen production using renewable energy sources as solar PV and wind energy which can then be used to decarbonize several other industries that currently use fossil-fuel powered electricity to produce hydrogen. China has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 (see China Declares Carbon Neutrality Goal By 2060).
According to Solarzoom, apart from LONGi other Chinese solar companies that are exploring green hydrogen are Sungrow, Baofeng Energy, GCL Group, Trina Solar, Zhonghuan Electronics.