China takes lead in green hydrogen production globally
In a recent report released by China’s National Energy Administration, it has been revealed that the country has 125,000 tonnes/year of production capacity for green hydrogen, namely hydrogen produced through water electrolysis using renewable energy, by the end of 2024.
The report, titled China Hydrogen Industry Development Report (2025), highlighted that China as the world’s largest renewable power generation capacity had expedited the development of an ecosystem for green hydrogen so as to create a demand centre for renewable electricity.
The global total green hydrogen production capacity reached around 250,000 tonnes/year by the end of 2024, with China accounting for 50% of the global total capacity, according to NEA statistics.
The NEA report showed that China established 35 green hydrogen projects in 2024, which accounted for 48,000 tonnes, or 38.4%, of the country’s total green hydrogen production capacity, adding that the green hydrogen production capacity increased by 62% year over year.
Despite the significant growth in green hydrogen production capacity, the majority of China’s actual hydrogen supplies were still from coal gasification, natural gas SMR (steam methane reforming), and industrial byproducts, according to the report.
According to the NEA report, China produced 36.5 million tonnes of hydrogen in 2024, which increased by 3.5% year over year. Some 20.7 million mt of hydrogen supplies were from coal, which increased by 6.7% year over year, 7.7 million tonnes were industrial byproducts, up 4%, and 7.6 million tonnes were products, down 4.4%.
In comparison, only 320,000 tonnes of the actual hydrogen supplies were produced through water electrolysis (using both renewable energy and thermal power) in 2024, up 3.6% year over year, the report showed.
The NEA report also said that as of Dec. 2024, China’s production cost of hydrogen fell to Yuan 28/kg ($3.85/kg), down 15.6% year over year.
Nevertheless, the lack of solid demand signals for green hydrogen has led to some projects being delayed as regards construction and operation. According to the NEA report, over 600 green hydrogen projects have been planned across China, but only 90 have been completed with 80 having started construction.
NEA called for stimulating hydrogen demand in the power sector, including through the direct use of hydrogen as a fuel for power generation, mixing hydrogen with natural gas for co-firing, as well as mixing ammonia, converted from hydrogen, with coal for co-firing.
It also highlighted that experiments had been completed to prove that it is feasible to blend up to 30% hydrogen into natural gas for a 50-MW gas turbine system.
For the transportation sector, the report showed that there had also been subsidy schemes in place, at both national and provincial levels, to scale up the market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
By the end of 2024, China established over 540 hydrogen refuelling stations and launched about 24,000 FCEVs, NEA said in the report.
