Chapter 1 – The Role of Hydrogen Energy: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

The objective of this chapter is to analyze the internal and external environment of hydrogen economy in China using Strengths–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats analytical method and then to prioritize the strategies for promoting the development of hydrogen economy in China. After the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the hydrogen economy in China were identified and nine effective strategies were proposed, a multicriteria decision-making method by integrating goal programing and fuzzy theory has been developed for prioritizing these strategies, which can help the stakeholders/decision-makers to implement these strategies appropriately. The proposed method is not limited to China, and it is a generic method that can also be used to study the hydrogen economy of other regions.