China is surpassing the rest of the world in green hydrogen production.
China is on track to surpass its national hydrogen production targets ahead of schedule. While preparing to produce 220,000 tons of green hydrogen annually, China is also outpacing the rest of the world.
China Leads in Clean Hydrogen
With 2.5 gigawatts of hydrogen electrolyzer capacity, China is expected to produce 220,000 tons of green hydrogen annually. This surpasses the rest of the world by 6,000 tons per year and exceeds the national 2025 target of 200,000 tons. For reference, Europe’s green hydrogen production in 2022 was only 20,000 tons.
According to a Rystad Energy report, China reinforced its position as a global leader in the adoption of hydrogen technology by installing a cumulative 1 GW of electrolyzer capacity in 2023. However, a significant portion of China’s hydrogen supply is derived from gray hydrogen produced through coal gasification or steam methane reforming (SMR). In 2023, the country produced approximately 35.5 million tons of hydrogen. Nonetheless, green hydrogen—obtained by using renewable electricity to split water into its components—accounted for only 1% of this total.
As the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China identifies hydrogen as a key element in its future energy mix to achieve its national carbon-neutral goal by 2060. In this context, the country is prioritizing “green” hydrogen—produced from clean sources—over “gray” hydrogen. China aims to reach a hydrogen production level of 119 million tons by 2050, with 70 million tons of that being generated from green hydrogen sources. Meanwhile, the report indicates that producing 1 million tons per annum (tpa) of green hydrogen requires approximately 20 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity. This is not a concern for China, as the country installed 217 GW of solar energy and 76 GW of new wind capacity in 2023.
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