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Shell gas stations will promote charging stations and explore hydrogen refueling stations and biomass fuels in China
Inputtime：2024-01-19 10:25:52
North Star Energy Storage Network News: With China officially lifting its control restrictions on foreign chain gas stations from July, Dutch oil giant Shell has identified China as one of the top five growth markets for the future. But in the process of transforming transportation energy, can Shell, which has more gas station outlets worldwide than Starbucks, maintain its position as a "hidden retail chain giant"?
Mark Gainsborough, President of Shell's New Energy Business, said that Shell has established Asia's first charging facility in Tianjin based on gas stations, which will be promoted to many Shell gas stations in the future. At the same time, the company is also discussing the establishment of hydrogen refueling stations with Chinese partners and supporting the promotion of ethanol gasoline.
Ge Sibo was interviewed by The Paper at the 2018 "Shell Dynamic Future Innovation Energy Carnival" held in Xi'an from October 19th to 21st. The reporter noticed a conceptual model of a future gas station at the conference booth: gas dispensers, charging stations, hydrogen refueling equipment, and LNG refueling equipment integrated into one station.
Will future gas stations have such a "four in one" function?
Promote gas and charging stations
Since its acquisition of British natural gas company for $53 billion in 2016, Shell has become the world's largest LNG (liquefied natural gas) company and the largest supplier of imported LNG to China, with a supply ratio of over 20%.
Shell and Changqing Oilfield have been cooperating in the development of the Changbei project since 1999, which is the largest international cooperation project completed in China's onshore oil upstream. In January 2018, Shell's first Asian LNG refueling station was extended and landed in Shaanxi.
This is just the first step of the journey, "Ge Sibo said. We have found great opportunities for liquefied natural gas in the field of long-distance trucks. He also mentioned that liquefied natural gas is an important clean energy solution, and the coal to gas conversion project in North China has brought immediate results to air quality.
In terms of charging stations, Ge Sibo believes that electric vehicles will undoubtedly experience significant growth. At the end of September, Shell North China Petroleum announced the operation of its first electric vehicle charging station pilot in Tianjin. In the future, charging stations will enter many Shell gas stations.
Meanwhile, Ge Sibo emphasized that electric vehicle charging will not rely solely on charging stations in the future, but can also be completed at home, workplaces, and other roadside facilities. Last October, Shell acquired NewMotion, the largest electric vehicle charging station operator in Europe. The company operates 50000 public charging stations in 25 European countries and has built over 30000 private charging stations for households or businesses.
Exploring hydrogen energy and biomass fuels
But for some heavy-duty vehicles, ordinary lithium batteries may not be a good choice because such heavy batteries themselves consume a lot of energy. Switching to hydrogen energy would be a good solution, "said Gesbo.
Shell's current deployment of hydrogen energy is relatively small, mainly built in several countries and regions that have received government support. Shell has built 7 hydrogen refueling stations in California, USA, with plans to expand to 50 stations; There are 50 hydrogen refueling stations built in Germany, with plans to expand to 300 in the future.
In fact, one of the markets with the greatest potential for hydrogen battery commercial vehicles worldwide is China. We expect the demand for hydrogen energy to expand, so we will increase investment in this area. In 2009, Shell established its first commercially operated hydrogen refueling station in Shanghai, which is now operated by Tongji University.
In addition, hydrogen energy itself also has energy storage purposes: converting excess electricity into hydrogen energy storage through electrolysis of water. This is also the direction Shell is discussing with its Chinese partners.
We hope to see, and we can also see, a decrease in the cost of large-scale electrolysis water equipment, which brings about very good business opportunities. In cities, some electric buses can use hydrogen fuel cells. When combined, China will have a very good hydrogen energy ecosystem, "said Gesbo.
In addition, Shell has mature technology in biomass fuel, which converts food, waste, and plastic waste from urban and rural areas into diesel and gasoline to power internal combustion engine vehicles.
We have a demonstration plant in India that has proven the feasibility of this technology. We believe that this technology will have many applications in China, so we are looking forward to developing it together with our Chinese partners
Ge Sibo said that while LNG powered vehicles and electric vehicles are growing rapidly, there is still a large stock of internal combustion engine vehicles, so it is necessary to study how to reduce the energy impact generated by these traditional vehicles. As an energy company, what we can do is to mix more biomass fuels into gasoline, just like the ethanol gasoline currently being promoted in China, which Shell clearly supports
Summary of gains and losses in new energy investment
With the volatility of the global oil and gas market and the pressure of climate and environmental issues, international oil giants including Shell need to face transformation problems. Gesbo introduced that in the past period, Shell has made significant moves in the fields of solar energy and offshore wind energy, including winning a 700 megawatt offshore wind power project in the Netherlands at the end of 2016 and acquiring a 44% stake in Silicon Ranch Solar Energy Company in the United States in early 2018.
From the experience of investing in new energy and electricity markets in the past, Ge Sibo summarized the following three gains and losses:
Firstly, Shell made a mistake in investing in the manufacturing of photovoltaic panels, only to later discover that this field is closer to the semiconductor industry and not something Shell excels in. The offshore wind power sector is a type of investment that we really like. Shell has rich experience in offshore operations and is also very familiar with energy trading. Therefore, when investing in the future, we must carefully consider whether our capabilities and targets match
Secondly, there is no global market for new energy like oil and gas, and it is more dispersed, which requires companies to have a very deep insight into the local market.
As far as China is concerned, Shell has not had many opportunities to try in the Chinese electricity market so far. But we are very eager to seek opportunities and play a bigger role, "said Gesbo. I think any company interested in new energy will be interested in the Chinese market, because it has been proven that as long as China is determined, the speed of change in this market will exceed that of any other market. However, China also has its own challenges: if China wants to have a sustainable energy structure, the adjustments and changes needed are very significant
Finally, traditional oil and gas companies need to have the courage to try and accept failure. It can be said that the electric vehicle charging field and the oil and gas field are completely different, and there is no mature business model that has been verified yet, so we need to try how to exaggerate the scale. Nowadays, when people talk about transformation, they often use the word 'pivot', which means that the direction you initially bet on may not make money, but you need to quickly turn around after discovering it
Shell Technology Ventures entered China last year and established its first venture capital fund office in Shanghai with the aim of finding promising startups and exploring innovation opportunities in China.
The 2018 "Shell" Future Innovation Energy Carnival also showcased some funded energy innovation projects on site, including clean stove projects that improve pollution and health by improving stoves and air intake systems, and solutions to convert leftover oil from restaurants such as KFC into truck diesel.
Original title: Shell gas stations will promote charging stations and explore hydrogen refueling stations and biomass fuels in China
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