Cross-Regional Collaboration Builds Hydrogen Ecosystem: 13-City Xinjiang-Chengdu-Chongqing Hydrogen Pilot Kicks Off

On October 29, the work deployment meeting for the XinjiangChengduChongqing DualCity Economic Circle Hydrogen Comprehensive Application Pilot City Cluster was held in Chongqing, marking the full implementation of the citycluster pilot initiative.

Hydrogen energy features triple attributes: energy source, raw material and energystorage medium. It supports the national “Dual Carbon” goals to advance green and lowcarbon transition, and unlock trillionyuan application scenarios covering transportation, metallurgy, chemical industry and equipment manufacturing. In August this year, three central authorities — the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission — officially approved the hydrogen comprehensive application pilot for the XinjiangChengduChongqing DualCity Economic Circle, with a fouryear pilot period.

This pilot city cluster covers the ChengduChongqing DualCity Economic Circle, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Gansu Province and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, encompassing 13 cities including Chongqing, Chengdu, Hami, Jiuquan and Shihezi. Since the 14th FiveYear Plan period, local authorities across the region have jointly fostered the hydrogen industry ecosystem. The region enjoys dualsource, costcompetitive and highquality hydrogen supply, a complete industrial chain with concentrated market players, a maturing western hydrogen corridor, abundant hydrogentechnology output and diversified application scenarios, laying solid foundations for the pilot programme.

At the deployment meeting, Chongqing, as the lead city, presented the overall plan, development status, targets and implementation roadmap for the pilot cluster. Chengdu and Hami, the two key responsible cities, together with ten participating cities, shared local conditions based on respective resource endowments, industrial foundations and future development layouts.

Per the arrangements, a joint working mechanism will be established: three core responsible cities take the lead to drive progress, while ten participating cities deliver coordinated support. All parties will clarify division of labour, leverage respective strengths and pursue integrated progress across the whole region.

During the fouryear pilot, the city cluster will focus on three key directions:

· Boost supplydemand coupling via industrydriven growth to build largescale industrial hydrogenuse scenarios and explore multiparty coordinated pathways for industrial decarbonisation;

· Build connected infrastructure for the “Thousandmile Hydrogen Corridor”, develop a green lowcarbon transport network and set a benchmark for multimodal zerocarbon transportation;

· Advance twoway empowerment through hydrogencarbon circulation, establish fullchain valuecreation mechanisms and foster a diversified, winwin marketdriven landscape.

Within the fouryear timeframe, the cluster aims to cultivate an industrial ecosystem featuring ample cleanenergy supply, robust industrial hydrogen consumption, smooth zerocarbon transport networks and highvalue hydrogencarbon conversion. Four major objectives will be pursued: building a key national hydrogen production base, a national benchmark for greenhydrogen integrated circulation, a national hub for zerocarbon transportation, and a national innovation source for the hydrogenenergy industry.