Trina Solar begins construction on 1.5GW hydrogen electrolyser gigafactory in eastern China

Trina Solar, one of the world’s largest PV manufacturers, has begun construction on one of the planet’s biggest electrolyser factories — a ¥700m ($98m) 1.5GW facility in Jiangsu province, eastern China.

The official groundbreaking ceremony in the city of Yangzhou took place last week, with the main workshop due to be completed in March next year, and be fully operational in May or June 2024.

Trina Solar’s Asia-Pacific president, Todd Li, said last month that the company expects to sell its alkaline electrolysers in the global market.

The company launched its electrolyser in December last year, saying it can produce two tonnes of hydrogen a day using 10-15% less electricity than rival machines, although the capacity of the electrolyser does not appear to have been revealed.

Trina Solar was one of the Chinese companies whose rapid emergence in the 2010s all but killed off the European solar manufacturing sector by achieving economies of scale that made their modules cheaper than any made in the EU.

Fears that a growing band of Chinese electrolyser manufacturers will be able to similarly undercut Western suppliers has led to calls for the EU to introduce trade measures that make it harder for Chinese electrolysers to enter the European market.

According to BNEF, by the end of next year, Chinese manufacturers will have the capacity to produce more than 30GW of electrolysers annually — with just over 20GW made in other countries.