Green Hydrogen
Germany and China lead global efforts in developing the green hydrogen sector, aiming to revolutionise energy systems and industrial processes.
Green hydrogen is a zero-carbon alternative for fossil fuels. It addresses gaps in the energy transition and has the potential to decarbonise challenging sectors like steel production, heavy transport and air travel, while enhancing grid flexibility via energy storage. While Germany and China are looking into possibilities for leveraging the industrial and transformative potential of hydrogen, the green hydrogen industry development in both countries is still in its early stage. The rapid industry scale-up ahead presents challenges, including misaligned definitions, certifications, and standards for green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen – the Solution of Closing the Gap to Climate Neutrality
Germany and China are pioneers in the rapidly growing global hydrogen industry. Germany has set the goal to install 10 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030 (0.1 GW by 2023), which would be capable of producing approx. 45 TWh of hydrogen per year. Despite this ambitious goal, Germany’s future green hydrogen production capacity will not be sufficient to cover its demand. Therefore, Germany is looking for international partners to build a new global commodity market for green and sustainable hydrogen. Parallel, hydrogen will play an important role in China’s future energy system. In China’s 2030 carbon peak scenario, hydrogen demand will reach 37.15 million tons. China aims at a renewable hydrogen production of 100.000 to 200.000 tons per year (approx. 6.7 TWh) by 2025 (99.000 t/a by 2024). Scaling up the production and application of green hydrogen, both countries face several similar challenges. These include, among others, constructing hydrogen infrastructure, matching supply and demand, and decreasing production costs.
Our Goal
Within the Energy Partnership, China and Germany aim to support the development of a policy environment beneficial for domestic and international upscaling of green hydrogen to unlock its potential in reaching climate goals. To achieve this, we facilitate policy exchanges to promote green hydrogen up-scaling, including aligning understanding on the role of green hydrogen in the decarbonisation process, policy development concerning green hydrogen certification and standards, as well as infrastructure development for the production, storage, and transportation of green hydrogen.
Our Activities & Results
Facilitating Policy Exchange on Standards, Certification, and Efficiency
- Since 2019, the energy partnership initiated a series of policy exchange workshops between German and Chinese government officials, think tanks and private sector representatives as well as a variety of publications.
- 2019 Start - The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (today German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action- BMWK) and the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) agree to cooperate on hydrogen at the 8th Meeting of the Sino-German Working Group on Energy.
- 2020-2021 Mapping the national hydrogen strategy, aligning understanding on cooperation areas, and identifying partners in both countries.
Outputs:
Identified key areas of cooperation: standardisation, certification, sector coupling, industrial decarbonisation
- 2022– 2023 Extensive thematic exchanges on key cooperation areas through expert workshops and research papers
Next Step: Deepening Cooperation on Hydrogen Standards
The Energy Partnership will continue to strengthen the cooperation with the China Hydrogen Alliance (CHA), China Hydrogen Energy Industry Committee (HEIC), China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS) and other Chinese and German partners and continuously deepen the Sino-German cooperation on green hydrogen. Specific thematic areas will expand and cover measurement and evaluation of hydrogen industry development, green ammonia and more. In addition to facilitating the exchange between Chinese and German experts, the Energy Partnership will also actively promote the preparation and development of relevant standards.
