Ph.D Shandong University, Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics
Haiyang, where did you grow up, and how old were you when you first discovered a love for energy research? What draws you to the field?
I grew up in the city of Shouguang, Shandong Province, China. Shouguang is known as the hometown of vegetables. As a rural child, I saw all kinds of fruits and vegetables from cultivation to maturity, which is the most ancient and natural energy process for human to use solar energy.
I was good at mathematics and physics in high school, so I elected to study engineering at college. I think that energy work has both theoretical significance and high practical value, so I took Energy and Power Engineering when I filled in my college application. Since then, I have been engaged in related work.
What would you say are your overall research interests?
I have been working on integrated energy system simulation and optimization for the past several years. My work studies the characteristics of energy supply and demand, and puts forward the optimization method of distributed and centralized energy system based on the principle of supply demand coordination and multi-energy complementarity. On demand side, I’m using agent-based method to simulate high resolution energy consumption and demand response in building and transportation sector. On supply side, the off-design characteristics and operational flexibility of energy devices and the uncertainty and intermittency of renewable energy sources are taken into account to develop the optimal configuration and operational strategy for integrated energy systems, to ensure an economic and environmentally friendly energy supply.
Can you give our community a brief overview of some of your current research projects that you are working on, as you begin your postdoc with the Harvard-China Project?
My work here aims to address the economic feasibility and decarbonization potential of renewable power, biomass energy and green hydrogen application by combining a techno-economic model for optimal design and operation of a low carbon energy system.
While studying the decarbonization strategies for China, Japan and India, hydrogen is considered to play a key role in facilitating the transition to a future deeply decarbonized energy system and can help accommodate higher penetrations of renewables in the power system. The economic feasibility and decarbonization potential of renewable-based hydrogen production are discussed through an integrated power-hydrogen-emission analytical framework based on real-world data from China’s Western Inner Mongolia (WIM). The results indicate that using wind power to produce hydrogen could provide a cost-competitive alternative (<2 $kg-1) to WIM’s current coal-dominated hydrogen manufacturing system, contributing at the same time to important reductions in wind curtailment and CO2 emissions.
Not only the onshore wind, but China’s also offshore wind power has great potential. We further explore the possibility that production of hydrogen from offshore wind in China and cost-competitive supply to Japan in achieving its goal for a viable future hydrogen economy. Hydrogen could be delivered to Japan either as liquid, or bound to a chemical carrier such as toluene, or as a component of ammonia. We present an analysis of factors determining the ultimate cost for this hydrogen, including expenses for production, storage, conversion, transport, and treatment at the destination and concludes that the Chinese source could be delivered at a volume and cost consistent with Japan’s idealized future projections.
Hydrogen can also be used to lower emissions from otherwise difficult to abate sectors, and accommodate for the variability of renewable power as storage. In exploring options for a 2050 carbon free energy future for India, an integrated renewable energy-based system planning framework is developed to identify the least cost options. We place particular emphasis on wind and solar sources of electricity, complemented by applications of green hydrogen, as means to compensate for the intrinsic variability of these sources, with further deployments both in industry and transport. In this study, we consider different future scenarios representing the variabilities in technological development in the building, agriculture, transport and industrial sectors, economics of energy and technology options, and national climate policies. The decarbonization potential and the corresponding costs and benefits can thus be derived from the ensemble of the designed scenarios. The integrated framework will illustrate decarbonization solutions of India’s energy system allowing for a fair comparison between different options.
Where do you envision yourself professionally in 5 or 10 years?
I’m aiming to become an energy researcher. I will continue to build my knowledge of energy system modelling and optimization. Hopefully, I will have the expertise to promote the transformation and upgrading of energy systems, and the algorithms I developed will be applied in practical energy engineering projects to manage the system to operate in a more efficient, more economic and greener way.
How has the Harvard-China Project thus far aided your research?
As an interdisciplinary research group, the Harvard-China Project is filled with scholars from various backgrounds. My research is also interdisciplinary. Integrated energy system study requires inputs from multiple disciplines, such as electricity, economics, climate, transportation and so on. In this group, I can find these experts and fill in the blanks of my study easily. It is remarkable that so many people with different expertise are working towards the same goal.
What has been the best part of your time at Harvard so far? Any memorable experiences?
The meetings and seminars here are extremely helpful, it’s my sunlight during the pandemic. What I miss the most is the daily lunch time in our conference room, it has been almost two years that we haven’t got a chance to gather - I really hope things can get back to normal soon.