Economic analysis of hydrogen production from China’s province-level power grid considering carbon emissions

Abstract

AbstractHydrogen energy contributes to China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutralization by serving as an important energy carrier. However, the calculation of the cost of hydrogen production by the power grid ignores the current cost of carbon emissions. To measure the cost of hydrogen-production projects in various provinces more comprehensively and accurately, this study incorporates the carbon-emission cost into the traditional levelized cost of hydrogen model. An analysis of the energy structure of the power supply is conducted in each province of China to calculate carbon-emission costs, which are then subjected to a sensitivity test. Based on the results, the carbon-emission costs for hydrogen in each province are between 0.198 and 1.307 CNY/kg, and the levelized cost of hydrogen based on carbon-emission costs varies from 24.813 to 48.020 CNY/kg; in addition, carbon-emission costs range from 0.61% to 3.4% of the total costs. The results also show that the levelized cost of hydrogen considering carbon-emission costs in the Shanghai municipality specifically is most sensitive to the carbon-emission price, changing by 0.131 CNY/kg for every 10% fluctuation in the carbon-emission price.