■ Li Jifeng

With the formation of a general consensus on addressing global climate change, major countries have successively proposed carbon neutrality plans to further improve the development goals of the hydrogen energy industry. The market demand for green hydrogen will increase significantly in the future. At present, the large-scale industrial application of hydrogen energy still needs to overcome four major challenges, namely, improving the industry standards and specifications of hydrogen energy, forming a complete industrial chain of "production, storage and transportation", building a long-distance and low-cost hydrogen energy transportation system, and reducing green hydrogen production costs.

In the future, it is necessary to form a consensus on the "energy attributes" of hydrogen energy. Among them, establishing and improving an appropriate industry supervision system is a prerequisite for hydrogen energy transformation; developing efficient and low-cost green hydrogen preparation technology and promoting "electricity-hydrogen" coupling is a key way to increase demand for hydrogen energy market; cultivating diversified hydrogen energy storage and transportation networks to achieve long-distance and long-term storage and transportation of hydrogen energy is the only way to connect the hydrogen energy industry chain; Creating a comprehensive demonstration zone for the entire hydrogen energy industry chain and supporting hydrogen energy industry policies is an effective means to expand hydrogen energy application scenarios, promote technological innovation breakthroughs, and accelerate the commercialization of the hydrogen energy industry.

Hydrogen energy becomes a new track for global competition

01

Hydrogen energy is a secondary energy source with abundant sources, green, low-carbon, and widely used applications. Under the global trend of carbon neutrality, hydrogen energy has received great attention from all countries and is expected to soon become an important carrier for realizing low-carbon energy transformation.

At present, the global annual demand for hydrogen energy is about 94 million tons, mainly used in refining and industrial fields. As the hydrogen energy application scenarios continue to expand, the hydrogen energy market scale will be greatly driven, and the hydrogen energy market scale is expected to expand significantly. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast, global hydrogen energy demand will reach 150 million tons by 2030 and exceed 400 million tons in 2060. Among them, the new supply after 2030 will mainly come from green hydrogen.

In order to achieve carbon neutrality goals and low-carbon energy transformation, the world's major economies have successively introduced or updated hydrogen energy development strategies, raising the development goals of hydrogen energy and green hydrogen. For example, the German government has updated its hydrogen energy strategic goals and plans to achieve a global leadership in the entire hydrogen energy technology industry chain by 2030, and the scale of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water will reach 10 gigawatts.(equivalent to 10 million kilowatts); the United States has increased its green hydrogen production targets in 2040 and 2050 to 20 million tons and 50 million tons respectively; Japan plans to provide hydrogen and ammonia to 12 million tons in 2040 and 2050 respectively; and 20 million tons; the South Korean government announced that it will invest 240 million won (approximately US$193 million) to support the construction of six hydrogen energy cities.

In China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategic deployment, hydrogen energy has become an important area to further promote the energy production and consumption revolution and build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. In March 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly released the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)". The global hydrogen energy track has taken shape, and its future development may exceed existing strategic expectations.