The Chinese government’s work report for this year has, for the first time, highlighted the acceleration of hydrogen energy devel-opment, marking its debut as a pioneering industry in the report. “This inaugural in-clusion of the hydrogen energy sector in the government work report as a leading-edge industry underscores a strengthened conviction in the potential of hydrogen en-ergy,” noted Zhang Guoqiang, a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC).

Hydrogen energy is a pivotal element in the latest global energy shift, said Zhang, who is also the Chairman of SinoHytec, a high-tech company that focuses on the R&D and commercialisation of hydrogen fuel cells. He believes hydrogen energy plays a crucial role in fostering an energy production and consumption revolution, establishing a clean, low-carbon, secure, and efficient energy system, and ultimately reaching carbon peak and neutrality tar-gets. In recent years, the development of China’s hydrogen energy industry has ac-celerated significantly, and the technol-ogy of autonomous fuel cells and their key components has gradually matured and achieved industrial application. However, with the development of hydrogen energy industry to the depth, it is also facing new problems and challenges.

For instance, Zhang told China Economic Net, the hydrogen energy industry in China is currently small-scale, which poses chal-lenges for its sustainable development. Additionally, the application of hydrogen energy in storage, power generation, met-allurgy, and chemical industries is still in the early stages of market application and has not yet achieved scale, making it dif-ficult to support the sustainable develop-ment of the hydrogen energy industry.

On top of that, the sources of hydrogen are limited, and the production scale, es-pecially for green hydrogen, is insufficient, leading to a shortage of hydrogen supply and high prices. Moreover, the primary method of hydrogen storage and trans-portation is high-pressure gaseous form, which has low efficiency. The lack of well-developed hydrogen refueling infrastruc-ture further impedes the development of the hydrogen energy industry.

At this year’s Two Sessions, Zhang Guoqiang believes that it is necessary to promote the large-scale application of hydrogen energy, and drive the industry to improve quality and reduce costs with scale. He suggested increasing support and formulating corresponding support policies, while continuing to expand the number of fuel cell vehicle demonstra-tion city clusters.

CHINA DEVELOPMENT BANK UPS SUPPORT FOR URBAN VILLAGE RENOVATION

The China Development Bank (CDB), a major policy bank in the country, has stepped up loan support for urban village renovation projects nationwide.

As of Thursday, the bank had issued 61.4 billion yuan (about 8.65 billion US dollars) of special loans to 271 projects in 33 cit-ies including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan, data from the bank showed. These projects had benefited about 360,000 households and had supported the con-struction of 695,000 housing units for peo-ple displaced by urban transformation, the CDB said. The bank added that it issued the first batch of such loans on Jan 30 this year, which amounted to 9.08 billion yuan.

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