LONGi Hydrogen, a subsidiary of China’s solar giant LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (LONGi), has launched its new generation of alkaline electrolysers, the ALK Hi1 Plus. The company boasts its new electrolyser can produce one normal cubic meter of hydrogen with 4kWh of electricity (4kWh/ NM3).

The company has succeeded at reducing the amount of electricity required to produce hydrogen units. Lowering the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) will make green hydrogen more cost-efficient.

Longi claims that with its new electrolyzer, for 0.1kwh/Nm³’s reduction in hydrogen production DC power consumption, depending on the number of system utilization hours, hydrogen LCOH can be reduced by 1.8%-2.2%, which is equivalent to a reduction of the initial investment of hydrogen production equipment by 10% to 25%.

The efficiency of Longi’s new electrolyzers is comparable to European ones. According to BloombergNEF, last year Chinese-made alkaline electrolysers were 75% cheaper to buy than their western counterparts.

Last month, European hydrogen electrolyser manufacturers called upon the EU to introduce “Made in Europe” requirements to protect them against cheaper Chinese imports, fearing a similar plight to the collapse of the European solar manufacturing industry in 2010s, when cheap Chinese solar panels flooded the market.