BEIJING, (Reuters) – China aims to boost the production of green hydrogen, a zero-carbon fuel generated from renewable energy sources, but called on Wednesday for “rational and orderly” planning of new projects to avoid disorderly competition.
China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has been striving to balance energy security and achieve its climate change goals, and is focusing on hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions from its transportation and industrial sectors.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Wednesday that China aims to produce 100,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year and have about 50,000 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles by 2025.
China currently produces 33 million tonnes of hydrogen a year, with about 64% of hydrogen coming and the rest mainly a by-product from industrial sectors.
“(We aim to) make great progress in clean energy-made hydrogen production, storage and transportation, improve market competitiveness, and establish a supply system mainly based on industrial by-product hydrogen and green hydrogen,” the NDRC said in the statement.
The state planner did not set a target for China’s total hydrogen output by 2025.
Green hydrogen production of 200,000 tonnes a year would still be less than 1% of current output.
The NDRC also warned of disorderly competition in the industry and called for a rational layout of hydrogen projects based on resources and market demand. (Reporting by Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Richard Pullin)
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