从“跑起来”到“用得起” 氢能产业迈向规模化关口From 'getting started' to 'affordable': The hydrogen energy industry is moving toward the threshold of scale

From October 8 to 9, the 2026 Hydrogen Energy Technology and Industry Development Strategy Seminar and Results Report Meeting was held in Weifang, Shandong. During the meeting, the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center focused on displaying the latest achievements in key hydrogen energy materials, core components, fuel stacks and systems, vehicles, stationary power generation devices, and diverse application scenarios. The judgment conveyed by the meeting is that hydrogen energy is at the critical point of moving from demonstration applications to large-scale commercialization. Before reaching the threshold of large-scale adoption, the most practical issues remain quite direct: how much can the price of hydrogen still drop, and how much longer must we wait.

Five-Year Report: From 'On the Vehicle' to 'At Home'. Rewinding time five years to March 2021, the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center was approved for construction by the Ministry of Science and Technology; in April of the same year, the major national R&D project 'Hydrogen into Thousands of Homes' led by this center was launched. According to the announcement at the meeting, the project team has overcome the core preparation technology for the entire industry chain of perfluorinated proton exchange membrane fuel cells; the membrane electrode performance developed using domestically sourced materials reached 0.67V @ 2.0A/cm²; the maximum power of the stack is 212.5 kW, with a volumetric power density of 5.12 kW/L, capable of self-starting at -40°C; the maximum power of a single fuel cell engine is 330 kW. Relying on these breakthroughs, the 'Hydrogen into Thousands of Homes' project has deployed over 3,000 fuel cell vehicles, with a total operating mileage of 150 million kilometers.

At this conference, three new high-power fuel cell engines, WEF200, WEF260, and WEF300, were released, with power ranging from 160 kilowatts to 330 kilowatts. Among them, the WEF300 has a rated power of 300 kilowatts and a peak power of 330 kilowatts, specifically targeting 49-ton long-haul logistics, while the other two are suitable for branch line logistics, short-distance mining, and other scenarios. According to the data released at the conference, the 49-ton tractor equipped with these high-power products consumes as little as 7.5 kilograms of hydrogen per 100 kilometers, which, based on high-frequency long-haul operations, can save tens of thousands of yuan in hydrogen costs per year.

The progress of "Hydrogen into Every Household" is not only seen in vehicles. Five service areas with hydrogen refueling stations have been built along the Jiqing Expressway. Qingdao Port is using hydrogen-powered rail cranes and container trucks, and the country's first hydrogen-electric tugboat, "Hydrogen-Electric Tug No. 1," has been commissioned. In Weifang, the country's first pure hydrogen pipeline designed according to urban gas standards has been constructed, with a total length of 5.2 kilometers and an annual hydrogen transport capacity of 30,000 tons. The nation's first large-scale hydrogen-blended natural gas demonstration project for 100,000 households has been launched, with the blending ratio adjustable between 0 and 10%, and it is expected to consume up to 13 million cubic meters of hydrogen per year. The combined heat and power system has demonstrated more than 160 units so far.

Next, careful calculation of economic benefits and gathering of collaborative strength are needed. Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chairman of the Shandong Association for Science and Technology, Ling Wen, frankly said that as costs continue to decrease, the economic viability of hydrogen will see significant progress, "If the price of hydrogen per kilogram can drop to 10 yuan, then it truly becomes both green and economical." Zhao Liqian, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd., stated that hydrogen prices need to fall below 10 yuan per kilogram to replace coal, and below 15 yuan per kilogram to replace natural gas.

In March this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued a notice to deploy pilot work on comprehensive hydrogen energy applications, clarifying that by 2030, the average terminal hydrogen price should drop to below 25 yuan per kilogram, with leading regions aiming for around 15 yuan per kilogram. In August, five city clusters including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Greater Bay Area were approved to carry out four-year pilot projects. Hydrogen energy applications are shifting from single fuel cell vehicle demonstrations to a new stage of large-scale deployment emphasizing multiple scenarios such as "transportation and industry."

During the meeting, the second session of the Technical Committee of the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center completed its re-election. The new committee comprises 19 members, including 7 academicians. The center also signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Frontier Energy Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Guoneng Hydrogen Innovation Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Regarding the pace of the next phase, the assessment formed at the meeting was that fuel cell technology is accelerating its iteration and upgrade toward high power, high reliability, and multi-scenario applications. The industrialization process continues to speed up, market application space continues to expand, but to unblock key points in the upstream and downstream industrial chain, it is necessary to gather joint efforts from government, enterprises, and research institutions, and deepen cross-entity collaboration.

[Source: Securities Daily]

[Editor: Xiao Neng]