BEIJING: China’s Sinopec has begun producing green hydrogen at a plant in the western region of Xinjiang, the company said on Friday.

Sinopec’s first green hydrogen facility has the capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons of hydrogen a year, using solar power to electrolyse water, the company said in a statement.

The plant, in Kuqa city in Xinjiang, is China’s first solar green hydrogen facility with a annual capacity of more than 10,000 metric tons, the company said.

That would make it the largest green hydrogen facility operating in the country.

China and other countries are racing to develop green hydrogen - produced using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen - as a crucial source of fuel with no carbon emissions to help limit climate change.