<article><p class="lead">China's coal-heavy Inner Mongolia region has laid out plans to develop seven wind and solar power projects that could produce almost 67,000 t/yr of hydrogen, as part of a push to raise output to 500,000 t/yr by 2025. </p><p>Inner Mongolia's energy planning ministry this month nominated seven pilot hydrogen projects based on wind and solar power in the cities of Ordos and Baotou. The projects will have the capacity to produce 66,900 t/yr of hydrogen from water, as well as installed capacity of 369.5MW of wind and 1,850MW of solar power. </p><p>At least one of the projects, a 10,000 t/yr plant in Ordos, should be on line before 2023, China's Hydrogen Energy Industry Promotion Association said. Further details of the timelines are unclear.</p><p>Inner Mongolia, which is among the most coal-intensive regions in China, last month set an ambitious target to have 100,000 t/yr of green hydrogen capacity by 2023, including 60 hydrogen retail stations and more than 3,800 hydrogen vehicles operating in the mining, logistics and public bus sector. It then plans to increase output capacity to 500,000 t/yr by 2025, with more than 10,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles on the roads. </p><p>Inner Mongolia is accelerating its shift to greener energy sources. The region is under more pressure than most other provinces in China to turn to cleaner energy, given it has long relied on its rich coal reserves and resulting cheap electricity to develop emissions-intensive industries such as coal-to-chemicals, non-ferrous smelting and ferro-alloy production. </p><p>Inner Mongolia is the second largest coal-producing province or region in China behind Shanxi. It produced 567.6mn t of coal in January-July, accounting for 25.1pc of China's total output. It is also one of China's three biggest producers of thermal power, with thermal generation — most of which is based on coal — at 278.04TWh in the period, or 8.3pc of the national total. </p><p>But Inner Mongolia also has also become China's largest renewable power producer, with more than 50GW of wind and solar farms and combined output of 60TWh in January-July. The amount of new renewable capacity installed last year outweighed additions of coal-based units, in a "turning point" for the region's green transition, the local government said. </p><p>China's biggest oil refiner, state-controlled Sinopec, is planning to build its <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2219002">first green hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia's Ordos</a> by 2022.</p><p>The project, which will use wind and solar power to produce 10,000 t/yr of green hydrogen, has been included in Inner Mongolia's key projects for 2021. The hydrogen will be consumed by Sinopec's Zhongtian Hechuang coal-to-chemicals project in Ordos.</p></article>
