China is leading the global hydrogen energy market in both production and consumption, with its renewable hydrogen capacity now accounting for over 50 percent of the world's total, according to a newly released industry report.
The China Hydrogen Energy Development Report (2026), recently released by the National Energy Administration, shows that the country's full hydrogen value chain — spanning production, storage, transportation and application — experienced explosive growth in 2025.
Operational renewable hydrogen capacity surpassed 250,000 metric tons per year, more than doubling from the previous year.
Infrastructure development is actively keeping pace with production. By June 2026, China had established approximately 620 hydrogen refueling stations and put over 350 kilometers of pure hydrogen pipelines into operation.
The report noted that independent technological and equipment breakthroughs across multiple segments, coupled with accelerated development pathways for green ammonia and green methanol, are pushing the sector's global influence to new heights.
Driven by its massive market scale, China has emerged as the world's fastest "testing ground" for hydrogen technology iteration.
The large-scale commercial operation of fuel cell vehicles, particularly heavy-duty trucks and public buses, has generated vast amounts of real-world operational data, according to the China Hydrogen Alliance.
This rapid feedback loop ensures that domestic manufacturers can quickly adapt and upgrade their systems, accelerating continuous technological optimization, it said.
According to the alliance, China's hydrogen production capacity and output grew steadily during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), with both production and consumption consistently ranking first globally.
Bian Guangqi, deputy director-general of the NEA's science and technology department, said previously that "the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) is a key point for the hydrogen industry to transition from being policy-driven to market-driven".
Currently holding more than half of the world's electrolyzer and fuel cell system manufacturing capacities, China is serving as a powerful incubator for both domestic hydrogen champions and multinational giants, which are actively leveraging the country's robust supply chain advantages — with many establishing localized research and development centers — to drive down manufacturing costs, accelerate technology iteration and scale up innovations.
Lou Yimin, senior vice-president and chief product officer at Envision Energy, said, "The top-level design is meant to direct long-term, stable investments or patient capital, toward strategic future objectives, while simultaneously unlocking market opportunities for sectors primed for mass commercialization."
The first phase (320,000 tons capacity) of Envision Group's 1.52 million-ton hydrogen-ammonia project, the largest facility of its kind in the world, in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was commissioned in July last year, demonstrating that producing green ammonia from renewable power is economically viable and commercially feasible.
Looking at the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the country aims to achieve major breakthroughs in industrial scale and commercial application scenarios.
The report projects that annual green hydrogen demand will range between 2.4 million and 4.3 million tons during this period, with the total output value of the entire industrial chain expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan ($148.2 billion).
During the next five years, hydrogen will be deeply integrated into the nation's broader economic and social development, creating massive scale effects in areas such as industrial decarbonization and the green transition of the transportation sector, it said.
Priority will be given to the comprehensive regional development of hydrogen, smoothly connecting various storage and transport infrastructures, and embedding the chemical deeply into the country's new energy system, said the report.
