Chinese companies made progresses in ASEAN’ green hydrogen businesses

China’s Huadian Group, one of the five largest state-owned power generation enterprises in China, has proposed to jointly develop a hydrogen production plant with Vietnam’s Minh Quang Technology Quang Tri, Vietnam. The green hydrogen plant will be powered by a 1,200 MW wind farm and an 800 MW solar farm nearby with a total investment of around $2.4 billion.

Once operational, the plant will have a capacity of 60,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually and earn a revenue of $250 million, contributing $27.5 million to the state budget and creating jobs for 500 workers, according to the meeting’s announcement.

Photo: the signing ceremony

We noticed that Chinese companies, especially state-owned power companies, are ramping up their green hydrogen businesses in ASEAN. Traditionally, they have strong presence in these countries but mainly focused on coal power construction, finance, and operation. As the new coal power plants significantly raised world’s concern of increasing decarbonization burden of host countries, China’s President Xi committed to halting financing and construction of new coal-fired power plants overseas at the 2021 United Nations General Assembly. Since then, China’s overseas power businesses developing sharply turned to renewable power, including hydrogen.

Just with first three month of 2024, Chinese companies have also made progresses in Thailand and Malaysia markets.