China just kicked off construction on a power project that could reshape what global energy looks like: the world’s first large-scale turbine designed to run entirely on hydrogen.
According to Interesting Engineering, the 30-megawatt turbine will be the centerpiece of a new closed-loop energy system, linking wind, solar, hydrogen storage, electrolysis, and even green ammonia production into a single hub.
Instead of blending hydrogen with methane gas, as past systems have done, this turbine will operate on hydrogen alone, marking a significant world first.
Hydrogen has long been referred to as the “missing puzzle piece” of clean energy. While solar and wind are affordable and abundant, they can’t always provide electricity when people need it most, like during calm nights or cloudy weeks.
By producing hydrogen from renewable energy, storing it, and then converting it back into electricity, this system could smooth out those gaps and deliver power when the grid would otherwise fall short.
The system combines a massive 500MW wind capacity with a 5MW solar array, plus equipment that produces 48,000 cubic meters of hydrogen per hour and stores it in twelve spherical tanks. The facility can also produce 150,000 tons of green ammonia annually, a clean fuel that can be shipped worldwide and used for various purposes, including fertilizers and powering ships and trucks.
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China has been rapidly expanding its renewable energy footprint, adding 198 gigawatts of solar and 46 gigawatts of wind in just the first five months of 2025, according to The Guardian. That’s roughly the total electricity output of countries like Indonesia or Turkey.
This hydrogen project aligns with the nation’s “dual carbon” goals of peaking pollution by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. If successful, it could serve as a template for other countries seeking to stabilize renewable-heavy grids and reduce their reliance on dirty energy.
Critics point out that converting electricity to hydrogen and back again isn’t perfectly efficient, as some energy gets lost along the way. However, as the costs of renewables and hydrogen production continue to decline, projects like this may soon become financially viable.
The facility is being built as part of Inner Mongolia’s push to become a national hydrogen hub. Once operational, it could prove that hydrogen can reliably support grids on a massive scale, giving China a leg up in the race to dominate the future of clean energy.
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