I. Green Hydrogen Bases Enter the Commissioning Wave: Installed Capacity Doubled in One Year

To judge what stage this industry chain has reached, the most reliable anchor is the official data from the National Energy Administration (NEA). At its April 2026 press conference, the NEA disclosed that as of the end of Q1 2026, China's completed and under-construction renewable-energy hydrogen production capacity exceeded 1 million tons/year in total; of this, more than 250,000 tons/year was completed and in operation — more than double the level at the end of 2024 — with over 900,000 tons/year under construction. The regional distribution is highly concentrated: of operating capacity, Northeast China accounts for 45.7%, North China for about 30%, and Northwest China for 21.8%; by province, Jilin and Inner Mongolia have cumulative capacity exceeding 90,000 tons/year and 80,000 tons/year respectively. Even more noteworthy is the jump in project scale — projects under construction average about 13,000 tons/year of capacity, projects of 10,000 tons and above account for 38%, and multiple projects of 50,000-ton class and above have started construction in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Jilin. Green hydrogen is moving from "industrial-park demonstration" to "base-scale production." Separately, according to Huatai Securities, China's green hydrogen production capacity exceeded 220,000 tons in 2025, more than half of the global total — the global center of gravity of this industry chain has clearly settled in China.

The landmark projects commissioned over the past year sketch out the concrete shape of this base-scale buildout:

  • The Da'an wind-solar green hydrogen and synthetic ammonia integration project of SPIC's Jilin Electric Power (吉电股份) was commissioned in July 2025, with a 180,000 tons/year green synthetic ammonia plant, hydrogen production combining 36,000 Nm³/h of alkaline and 9,600 Nm³/h of PEM electrolysis, and 48,000 Nm³ of solid-state hydrogen storage; the project owner calls it the world's largest single-unit green ammonia project;
  • Phase I of China Energy Engineering Corporation's Songyuan green hydrogen-ammonia-methanol integration project was commissioned in December 2025, with 800,000 kilowatts of renewable power generation, annual output of 45,000 tons of green hydrogen and 200,000 tons of green ammonia and green methanol, and a hydrogen production plant composed of 64 electrolyzers;
  • Sinopec's Ulanqab 100,000 tons/year wind-solar hydrogen integration project continues to advance; its supporting hydrogen pipeline from Ulanqab to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is about 1,145 kilometers long, with near-term throughput of 100,000 tons/year and a long-term plan of 500,000 tons/year; the Inner Mongolia section was approved in July 2025;
  • The policy foundation is being consolidated in parallel: the Energy Law that took effect in 2025 brought hydrogen into the energy management system for the first time, the 15th Five-Year Plan lists hydrogen among the future industries, and the 2026 Government Work Report proposed "cultivating new growth drivers such as hydrogen energy and green fuels."

II. Electrolyzers: The Scissors Gap Between 3 GW of Tenders and 58 GW of Capacity

Demand is genuinely ramping up. According to Huatai Securities, China's domestic electrolyzer tender volume reached 3.02 GW in 2025; industry media put first-half 2025 tenders at about 1,381.76 MW, up 136% year on year. Single-project scale is also jumping to a new tier: in 2025, a green hydrogen project in Korla, Xinjiang tendered about 480 MW of electrolyzer equipment in one batch, setting a single-project record and multiplying that month's award volume year on year. On technology routes, alkaline (ALK) electrolyzers remain absolutely dominant, with over 91% of 2024 shipments (GGII data); PEM is starting to gain volume in deep load-following and off-grid scenarios — the Da'an project's alkaline-plus-PEM hybrid hydrogen production is the landmark configuration. It should be noted that tender volume, award volume, and shipment volume are three different statistical scopes, and monthly figures are extremely volatile — a single large project can multiply a month's number — so this data should be read as annual cumulative totals rather than single-month year-on-year comparisons.

But supply-side expansion has been even faster. According to Huatai Securities, China's domestic electrolyzer manufacturing capacity stood at about 58 GW as of 2025 — against roughly 3 GW of annual domestic tenders, the industry's nameplate capacity utilization is only in the single-digit percentage range, far from saturation even with export orders added. The capacity scissors gap has directly squeezed out a price war:

  • The average winning bid for alkaline electrolyzers fell to about RMB 1,300/kW in 2024, down more than 50% from 2021 (different institutions' statistics range between RMB 1,300 and 1,560/kW, with differences mainly from project samples and whether auxiliary systems are included; this report labels each figure's scope separately);
  • Extreme cases have already appeared: in one 10-MW-class procurement project, a single 2,500-Nm³ alkaline electrolyzer won at RMB 4.69 million, equivalent to about RMB 375/kW;
  • Overseas observers see an equally steep curve: S&P Global says tender prices for a standard 1 MW alkaline electrolyzer fell from about US$800/kW in 2022 to about US$400/kW in 2025, and Hydrogen Insight reports that Chinese alkaline system prices for large orders have dropped below US$250/kW;
  • PEM system prices remain in the US$600–900/kW range, falling faster than alkaline but still several times higher in absolute terms.

The other side of the price war is that industry media widely report OEMs running on thin margins or at a loss. OEMs are left with only two ways out: technology-driven cost reduction and going overseas. On technology, large per-unit capacity, high current density, and wide-range flexible operation have become threshold capabilities for 2026 bids, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set a 2028 target of DC power consumption below 4.2 kWh/Nm³ for mass-produced water-electrolysis hydrogen equipment; on markets, China's electrolyzers and other core equipment have been exported to more than 30 countries, with large green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in the Middle East and Central Asia becoming the main battleground for higher-margin orders.

III. Manufacturer Landscape: Three Types of Players Jockeying Across Dual Technology Routes

GGII's top ten Chinese hydrogen electrolyzer manufacturers by 2024 shipments are: PERIC Hydrogen (派瑞氢能), LONGi Hydrogen (隆基氢能), Sungrow Hydrogen (阳光氢能), Cockerill Jingli (考克利尔竞立), Qingqi Shidai (氢器时代), Changchun Lvdong (长春绿动), SANY Hydrogen (三一氢能), Tianjin Mainland Hydrogen (天津大陆制氢), Zhongdian Fengye (中电丰业), and Qingqiji Group (青骐骥集团). Behind this list are players of three backgrounds:

  • Established electrolysis equipment makers: PERIC Hydrogen (backed by CSSC's 718th Research Institute), Cockerill Jingli, and Tianjin Mainland Hydrogen, winning base-project orders on decades of industrial electrolysis track record and large per-unit capacity;
  • New-energy crossovers: LONGi Hydrogen, Sungrow Hydrogen, and SANY Hydrogen, reusing the manufacturing, channel, and capital capabilities accumulated in solar and wind;
  • New-route specialists: Changchun Lvdong focused on PEM, and Qingqi Shidai and others entering with new dual-route products.

The concentration trend deserves upstream suppliers' attention: the top three's share was once around 70% in 2021–2022, but had thinned to about 50% on the 2023 tender-and-award basis; among the 2024 top ten shippers, 8 have deployed both alkaline and PEM routes, with only LONGi Hydrogen and Cockerill Jingli focused on alkaline and Changchun Lvdong specializing in PEM. The landscape is far from settled, and for upstream players this means: OEMs are all chasing track records and expanding product lines, so qualified-supplier certification for materials and components is an open window, not a closed system.

IV. Upstream Materials and Supporting Equipment: Where the New Orders Land

The price pressure on electrolyzer stacks is being transmitted up the bill of materials — but the direction of transmission is not "cut prices across the board"; it is "switch materials, switch solutions":

  • Diaphragms: the PPS fabric used as the mainstream alkaline electrolyzer diaphragm substrate has long been dominated by Japan's Toray; the new generation of composite diaphragms (PPS mesh substrate plus ceramic coating), selling on lower power consumption, has entered the volume-validation phase. Domestic manufacturer Tanneng Keji (碳能科技) self-reports that it has built a composite membrane production line of 100,000 square meters/year in Weifang and is building a 1 million square meters/year line through a joint venture in Xi'an. The diaphragm is the most direct lever for cutting electrolyzer power consumption, and currently the component OEMs are most willing to swap;
  • Electrodes and plates: the trend toward large per-unit capacity and high current density is driving demand for nickel mesh substrates, catalytic-coated electrodes, and precision machining of electrode frames; electrode coatings have become one of the core components on which OEMs differentiate;
  • The PEM chain: proton exchange membranes and platinum and iridium precious-metal catalysts still partly depend on imports (per S&P Global), making this the highest-certainty localization window on this industry chain;
  • Rectifier power supplies: the standard industry configuration is one hydrogen-production power supply per 1,000 Nm³/h (about 5 MW) electrolyzer; thyristor solutions run about RMB 200,000–300,000 per set, while IGBT solutions run about RMB 1.2–1.5 million per set (publicly available industry estimates). Third-party institutions estimate the global IGBT hydrogen power supply market at about US$62.14 million in 2025, projected to reach US$534 million by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate of about 43% — the more off-grid and flexible hydrogen production scenarios there are, the faster IGBT penetrates;
  • Compression, storage, and transport: high-pressure gaseous tube trailers dominate today, with pipelines the clear direction — the Beijing–Inner Mongolia hydrogen pipeline is the first cross-provincial template; the Da'an project's 48,000 Nm³ of solid-state hydrogen storage has also brought new storage solutions into base-scale engineering.

V. Conclusion: Translating Industry Change into Order Opportunities for Upstream Suppliers

Converting the data above into sales actions, there are four directions worth working in the second half of 2026:

  • Watch the bases, not just the stack makers: the electrolyzer OEM segment is struggling on the loss line, while the real procurement budgets sit with the owners and EPC contractors of base projects in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and elsewhere — rectifier power supplies, gas-liquid separation, purification units, compressors, storage tanks, and valves and fittings all scale with EPC volume;
  • Watch replacement, not just new additions: composite diaphragms replacing PPS fabric, IGBT power supplies replacing thyristors, and catalytic electrode upgrades — replacement demand has a much shorter decision cycle than new capacity;
  • Helping OEMs cut costs is how you win orders: under extreme bids of about RMB 375/kW, any supplier that can make any single component cheaper and more durable holds bargaining chips;
  • Follow the exports: core equipment has been exported to more than 30 countries, and overseas certification and localized service capabilities for supporting components are becoming a new competitive dimension.

One more reminder: in this industry there is a huge gap between nameplate capacity, filed plans, and real orders, so sales prospecting must come down to "who is actually producing, and who actually won the bid." On Tianxia Gongchang AI — Tianxia Gongchang (tianxiagongchang.com), a B2B platform covering 4.8 million Chinese factories — you can search this industry chain's real factories in its database of 4.8 million real, operating factories, querying directly by category and region in a conversational interface.

Data Source Notes

All data in this report comes from public channels: national renewable-energy hydrogen capacity, regional distribution, and project scale are from the National Energy Administration's April 2026 press conference; 2025 electrolyzer tender volume, industry capacity, and prices are from Huatai Securities research (republished by Sina Finance) and statistics compiled by industry media such as Cailian Press and Century New Energy Network; the manufacturer shipment ranking follows GGII (Gaogong Hydrogen) data; overseas prices follow reporting by S&P Global and Hydrogen Insight; parameters for the Da'an, Songyuan, and Ulanqab projects come from project-owner disclosures and public reports by Xinhua and Science and Technology Daily; the composite diaphragm production lines are company self-reported figures, and the rectifier power supply market size is a third-party institutional estimate. Different institutions' statistics on tender volumes and average winning bids differ in scope (whether framework agreements and auxiliary systems are included), and each figure's scope is labeled in the text; any figure for which no reliable source could be verified was left out.