Greater Bay Area Hydrogen Pilot City Cluster Holds Deployment Meeting, Uniting 14 Cities Across 5 Provinces to Accelerate Scaled Applications

GUANGZHOU, September 22^nd — The Greater Bay Area Hydrogen Comprehensive Application Pilot City Cluster Deployment Meeting held in Guangzhou, marking the first dedicated operational deployment meeting among China's five national hydrogen pilot city clusters. The event signals that implementation for this national-level hydrogen pilot program has formally entered its execution phase. Officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF), leadership from provincial departments in Guangdong, representatives from 14 participating cities across five provinces, industry associations, and supply chain enterprise delegates attended the meeting.

The pilot city cluster adopts a multi-regional collaborative model led by Guangzhou, uniting 11 participating cities and 3 cooperating cities across five provinces—Guangdong, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, and Hainan—while coordinating externally with Hong Kong. By leveraging multiple national regional development strategies, the initiative establishes a cross-regional collaborative hydrogen development framework.

According to the pilot implementation plan, the city cluster has outlined quantitative development targets for the demonstration period, including deploying 16,000 fuel cell vehicles and constructing 100 hydrogen refueling stations. The plan coordinates the construction of four major hydrogen transport corridors—Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau, Guangzhou-Zhanjiang, Wuhan-Xiangyang-Shiyan, and Coastal corridors—to build a benchmark national intercity hydrogen transport network while driving commercial-scale applications across transportation and industrial sectors.

The meeting concurrently advanced several key supporting mechanisms:

Industry Association Launch: Preparations were finalized for the Greater Bay Area Hydrogen City Cluster Comprehensive Application Promotion Association. Founded jointly by industry leaders, universities, and research institutes, this non-profit entity will manage resource matching, standard setting, and industrial services to eliminate regional collaboration barriers.

RMB 1 Billion Industry Fund: Framework plans were detailed for a total RMB 1 billion hydrogen industry cooperation fund to be paid in three tranches, with an initial tranche of RMB 400 million. The fund rely on a government-guided, market-driven operational model, and will pool state-owned and private capital to invest across hydrogen production, storage, transport, refueling, and end-use projects.

Inter-provincial Policy Alignment: Guangzhou led an initiative proposing highway toll exemptions and cross-provincial mutual recognition for hydrogen vehicles, urging participating provinces to roll out zero-toll policies for hydrogen transport, optimize refueling network layouts, and target end-use hydrogen costs below RMB 25/kg to dissolve inter-provincial policy constrains.