BEIJING, March 24,2022: China’s top economic planner on Wednesday announced a target to produce up to 200,000 tonnes per year of carbon-free green hydrogen by 2025 while envisioning a more widespread industry over the longer term.
China aims to produce 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year and have about 50,000 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles by 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.
The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China has been striving to balance energy security and its climate change goals, and is looking to hydrogen to help reduce carbon emissions from transportation and industry.
Green hydrogen is produced by breaking down water using electrolysis powered by renewable energy sources.
Producing hydrogen using natural gas or coal releases carbon emissions while using renewables such as solar and wind power does not.
“Development of hydrogen is an important move for energy transition and a great support for China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals,” said Wang Xiang, the deputy director of the High Technology Department at the NDRC, at a media briefing.
China currently produces 33 million tonnes of hydrogen a year, about 80% of it generated using coal and natural gas, and the rest mainly a by-product from industrial sectors, according to the government.
The official data did not disclose China’s green hydrogen output.
