Three Departments: Conduct Pilot Programs for Comprehensive Hydrogen Energy Applications, with a maximum reward of no more than 1.6 billion yuan per urban agglomeration during the pilot period

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on conducting pilot projects for the comprehensive application of hydrogen energy. The central government will provide reward funding to city clusters through a “performance-based reward” approach. The reward standards will be set based on the application of terminal products in various scenarios or the scale of hydrogen use. Each city cluster pilot will last for 4 years. The maximum reward for a single city cluster pilot will not exceed 1.6 billion yuan. The reward funds will be centrally managed by local authorities to support the comprehensive application of hydrogen energy and must not be used for balancing budgets, repaying government debt, or clearing overdue payments to enterprises. Each city cluster should maximize the benefits of the reward funds, effectively reduce hydrogen usage costs, and ensure that the benefits are passed down to the terminal product consumption stage.