Chinese company Sinopec has begun construction on a solar-to-hydrogen project that it believes will become the largest in the world once completed.

It has revealed that the site will produce 20,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen each year by 2023 and it will invest more than $470 million (£352m) in building the electrolyser facility, which will be powered by a 300MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Xinjiang.

Sinopec is already the biggest hydrogen producer in China and these plans follow its targets announced earlier this year to produce 500,000 tonnes of green hydrogen each year by 2025.

Known more for its work in petrochemicals, this would the company take a far less carbon-intensive direction than its current production of just under four million tonnes of grey hydrogen using fossil fuels.

President Ma Yongsheng commented: “Hydrogen energy is one of the sources of clean energy that has the most potential for development.

“This pilot project gives full play to Xinjiang’s advantage in its wealth of resources and is a key project for Sinopec to build a number-one hydrogen energy company.”