"Hydrogen" is deployed to open new industry opportunities. China accelerates large-scale development of hydrogen energy.

The world’s first gas turbine that can freely switch among three fuels—hydrogen, ammonia, and natural gas—showcases disruptive breakthroughs in the hydrogen power generation and energy storage sectors. China’s first domestically produced (set) tens-of-thousand-watt-class helium liquefier marks that large-scale liquefaction technology in China has entered the world’s top tier. A globally launched series of wide-range anion exchange membrane products achieves a critical breakthrough in moving advanced electrolysis water technology from the laboratory to industrial-scale manufacturing… At the 2026 China Hydrogen Energy Exhibition and the International Hydrogen Energy Conference held recently, a series of cutting-edge hydrogen products and innovative technologies left attendees astonished.

As an important carrier for energy conversion, hydrogen energy is a key link in building a new energy system. Experts say hydrogen energy will play an important role in promoting the construction of a new energy system and helping deeply decarbonize the industrial and transportation sectors. In the future, we need to increase technological innovation efforts, promote large-scale applications across multiple scenarios, form a complete technological innovation system and an industry supply chain system, make hydrogen energy a new economic growth point, and help drive a comprehensive green transition of the economy and society.

Accelerate large-scale development

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s hydrogen energy industry achieved a leap from “following” to “running alongside” in terms of strategy implementation. It made comprehensive breakthroughs in policy frameworks, technological innovation, and industrial scale, laying a solid foundation for large-scale, high-quality development in the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.

On the policy framework front, the strategic positioning of hydrogen energy has continued to be upgraded, and it has been deeply integrated into policy frameworks across multiple fields such as energy and electricity, equipment manufacturing, and green trade. By the end of 2025, the country had issued 5 national-level hydrogen energy policies in total, and local supporting hydrogen energy专项 policies exceeded 640, forming a multi-tier policy system led by top-level design and supported by local implementation.

On the technological innovation front, China’s hydrogen energy core technologies have seen a significant leap in independent and controllable capability. By the end of 2025, the cumulative number of domestic hydrogen-related patent applications exceeded 100k, ranking first globally; among 59 key hydrogen energy technologies, 6 reached the international “leading” level, and 3 upgraded from “following” to “running alongside”; a total of 5 batches comprising 27 sets of first-of-a-kind hydrogen energy technology equipment have been released, and the results of key technological breakthroughs have been remarkable.

On the industrial scale front, industry supply capability and supporting infrastructure have continued to improve. By the end of 2025, China’s renewable energy-based hydrogen production annual capacity exceeded 100k tons, and more than 590 hydrogen fueling stations had been built. The global market shares for electrolyzer system capacity and fuel cell system capacity were approximately 60% and 70%, respectively; the cumulative number of fuel cell vehicles promoted has remained among the top in the world.

During the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, as an important future direction for China’s industries, the hydrogen energy industry will shift from policy-driven to market-driven, and from international “running alongside” to comprehensive “leading.” Bian Qiqi, Deputy Director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Science & Technology Equipment under the National Energy Administration, said that the next steps will be to strengthen industry planning and guidance, and guide hydrogen energy to work in tandem with scenarios such as wind/solar power bases and major power, nuclear power, and coal-related scenarios, to coordinate hydrogen energy development within the new energy system. We will push forward breakthroughs on core technologies, promote the rollout and iterative upgrades of first-of-a-kind (set) technology equipment, and accelerate the engineering and industrial application of major technological achievements. We will continue to advance hydrogen energy pilot programs, increase support for the development of the hydrogen energy industry, and promote seamless coordination across the whole chain of “production, storage, transport, and use” of hydrogen energy; we will also improve the standards and certification system and co-build an open and win-win hydrogen energy ecosystem.

Lower costs across the whole chain

Large-scale development and lowering costs across the whole chain are key to opening up market space for the hydrogen energy industry.

During the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, it will be a crucial window period when China’s hydrogen energy industry moves from pilot exploration to large-scale, industrial, and commercial development. The China Hydrogen Energy Alliance’s 《Research on the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry During the “15th Five-Year Plan”》 proposes that by the end of the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, cost reduction at the hydrogen production stage will reach source-level savings. The cost of producing hydrogen from renewable energy should fall to below 15 yuan per kilogram, and in resource-advantaged regions to below 10 yuan per kilogram. Efficiency will leap at the storage and transportation stage, with storage and transport costs per 100 kilometers dropping by more than 50% compared with the 2025 level. At the hydrogen use stage, terminal parity will be achieved: the cost of hydrogen for transportation terminals should fall to below 25 yuan per kilogram; industrial hydrogen costs should be on par with the cost of hydrogen produced from natural gas; under the carbon tariff mechanism, the cost of green fuels shipped by sea should be on par with heavy fuel oil.

“Transportation hydrogen cost is around 25 yuan per kilogram. This price already has a clear advantage over gasoline and diesel prices, and even approaches the charging cost of electric vehicles at public charging piles.” Yu Zhuoping, Director of the Expert Committee of the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance and a professor at Tongji University, said.

Gan Yong, Executive Vice Chairman of the Strategic Guidance Committee of the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said: “If we can control hydrogen’s storage and transport costs, the above goals can be achieved relatively easily. Pipelines are the best storage-and-transport mode—costs are very low. For each kilogram transported over 1,000 kilometers, the cost is only about 3 yuan, which is one-twentieth of the cost of tanker truck transportation.”

Overall, during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the hydrogen energy industry needs to address bottlenecks such as overall high costs across the entire supply chain, the dilemma of “demonstrations that are usable but not scalable,” and infrastructure shortcomings, supply-use disconnects, scenario mismatches, and insufficient energy storage and smooth storage issues.

Yu Zhuoping suggested coordinating the layout of hydrogen-ammonia alcohol bases to build an “integrated” supply system; building a multi-source storage and transportation network system to form a “two horizontal and three vertical” storage-and-transport layout and open up coordinated corridors for western production to eastern delivery and northern production to southern transportation of resources; strengthening technological innovation and ensuring independent, controllable industrial development to drive systematized innovation in technology and deep integration with the industrial chain; advancing innovation in management systems to build a mature and sustainable industrial ecosystem; and deepening international technology trade cooperation to enhance international discourse power.

Broaden applications across all scenarios

Technologically advanced, supported by policy, hotly backed by capital… In recent years, in sharp contrast to policy warmth and technological reserves, the pace of industrialization and commercialization of hydrogen energy has always been slow and uneven.

The crux of the problem is scenarios. Because there are not enough application terminals of sufficient scale to spread costs and validate and optimize business models, hydrogen energy’s technological advantages are difficult to convert into market competitiveness, and the industrial ecosystem cannot form a closed loop. To avoid the awkward situation of “good on paper but not selling in practice,” hydrogen energy urgently needs good scenarios and large-scale scenarios.

The 《Notice on Carrying Out Pilot Projects for Comprehensive Hydrogen Energy Applications》 jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission recently proposes that driving cost reduction through large-scale applications across multiple scenarios will help hydrogen energy technology and equipment achieve breakthroughs, and promote high-quality development of the hydrogen energy industry.

Transportation, industry, and power generation are the main application scenarios for hydrogen energy. As China’s installed capacity of new energy continues to rise, the contradiction between local consumption in regions rich in green electricity resources and large-scale long-distance transmission has become more prominent, which will further promote the integration of hydrogen energy with new energy development. Ma Tiancai, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance and a professor at Tongji University, believes that new models and mechanisms such as direct connection of green electricity, producing green hydrogen with green power, zero-carbon industrial parks, and virtual power plants are accelerating exploration; the large-scale and industrial development of hydrogen energy is entering an important window period.

Feng Laifa, General Manager of the State Power Investment Group, introduced that for the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the group will adhere to a dual-wheel drive of a “green hydrogen energy industrial chain” and a “hydrogen energy innovation service chain,” focusing on core scenarios such as power new energy, heavy-load transportation, and green chemical industry, and accelerate the layout and construction of multi-ten-thousand-ton-level green hydrogen-ammonia-alcohol industrial bases. At the same time, it will further deepen integration and innovation between hydrogen energy and the group’s internal coal power and chemical power transportation and operation scenarios, and build, to a high standard, national-level hydrogen energy innovation platforms and pilot test platforms for hydrogen energy equipment. It will make every effort to break through key technologies across the entire chain, providing solid support for building a new energy system.

On the application-scenario side, hydrogen energy is entering people’s daily lives in a more tangible way. During the 2026 China Hydrogen Energy Exhibition and the International Hydrogen Energy Conference, hydrogen solid-state hydrogen-storage mini bicycles for the Chengdu collection of hydrogen, the three-bottle quick-swap hydrogen electric motorcycles from Jiā’ān Hydrogen Source, the solid-state hydrogen-storage delivery trucks dedicated for takeout from Hūawàng Hydrogen Energy, and the hydrogen-assist bicycles from Suzhou Sùyù—these make hydrogen “black technologies” within reach, vividly illustrating the infinite imagination of hydrogen energy blending into everyday life.

Experts say that to pick the right scenarios, several key criteria must be followed. First, pain points must be clear: existing technologies cannot adequately meet the needs, with obvious market gaps or shortcomings. Second, value must be prominent: hydrogen energy applications can bring significant economic and environmental benefits. Third, closed-loop feasibility: the selected scenarios have the potential to build a relatively independent and controllable small ecosystem for “production, storage, transport, and use,” or can effectively integrate into the existing industrial system to form a coordinated development pattern. Fourth, scale potential: the target market has a sufficiently large capacity, able to support initial market promotion and also possess room for continuous growth in the future. Each region and each industry should, based on its own characteristics, dare to explore and actively cultivate more sustainable application scenarios.

Source: Economic Daily, reporter Wang Yichen