China Hydrogen Alliance (CHA), the country’s hydrogen industry body, which is supervised and supported by the government released a position paper calling the government to strive towards installing 100 GW of green hydrogen electrolysers by 2030. The country currently has only 76 MW of electrolysers in operation.

So what?

The call to reach 100 GW from less than 1 GW at present might seem impossible, but the government’s supervision and support in the CHA suggests that the call isn’t without government oversight. Development in other sectors, such as transport and steel, also hint towards a possible move towards green hydrogen: China has already become the world’s largest producer of fuel-cell electric vehicles, which use hydrogen as fuel.

While China is the largest hydrogen producer in the world, much of this hydrogen is ‘grey hydrogen’, produced using fossil fuels. Green hydrogen, in contrast, doesn’t use fossil fuel and is instead powered by renewable energy. If China ramps up its production of green hydrogen, it could have huge implications for its economic viability and its adoption in various industries – particularly those that are difficult to immediately decarbonise. Growth in green hydrogen would also prompt an increase in demand for renewables, since massive amounts of clean energy would be required for its production.

China’s neighbour India has also recently backed green hydrogen for energy self-reliance. As such, the growth of the sector in these two competing economies might pave the way towards a more economical green future.