On March 23, 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and National Energy Administration (NEA) jointly issued the Hydrogen Energy Industry Medium and Long-term Development Plan (2021-35) (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”).

The development objectives that specified in the Plan include:

  • by 2025

– establishing a hydrogen energy supply system with hydrogen produced by: industrial by-products; nearby utilization of hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources

– the number of fuel cell vehicles to reach about 50,000

– building a number of hydrogenation stations

– hydrogen production from renewable energy to reach 100,000-200,000 tons per year: becoming an important part of the increase in hydrogen energy consumption

– achieving CO2 emission reduction of 1-2 million tons per year

  • by 2030

– building a relatively complete technological innovation system for the hydrogen industry

– building a clean energy hydrogen production and supply system

  • by 2035

– building a hydrogen energy industrial system

– building a diversified hydrogen energy application ecosystem covering: transport, energy storage, industry, other fields

  • establishing an innovation system to support the high-quality development of the hydrogen energy industry

– advancing proton exchange membrane fuel cell tech innovation

– improving the reliability of fuel cells and conversion efficiency of hydrogen production from renewable energy

  • advancing hydrogen infrastructure construction

– launching demonstrations of hydrogen production from renewable energy in areas rich in following resources: wind, solar. hydropower

– supporting the exploration and practice of various storage and transport methods

– improving the efficiency of high-pressure gas storage and transport: speeding up the reduction of storage and transport costs

  • promoting diversified demo applications of hydrogen energy

– focusing on the application of hydrogen fuel cells in medium and heavy vehicles

– gradually expanding the application space of hydrogen fuel cells in other new energy passenger and cargo vehicles

  • improving hydrogen development policy and guarantee mechanism

– standardizing the construction and management procedures for: hydrogen energy preparation, storage, transport, refueling

– implementing safety supervision responsibilities

– strengthening research on safety management systems and standards for hydrogen energy

– establishing and improving safety standards and norms for the whole hydrogen energy industry