A Fresh Push For Green Hydrogen

Context: Key recommendations to look into as India will soon join 15 other countries in the hydrogen club as it prepares to launch the National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM).

Green hydrogen market

• Global target: To produce 1.45 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2023.
• Consumption in India:5 million tonnes, primarily produced from imported fossil fuels.
• Potential demand: In 2030, according to an analysis by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), green hydrogen demand could be up to 1 million tonnes in India across the application in sectors such as ammonia, steel, methanol, transport and energy storage.

Key recommendations to enhance commercial-scale operations of green hydrogen

• Promote decentralised hydrogen production: through open access of renewable power to an electrolyser.
  • Wheeling electricity directly from the solar plant (say at Kutch) to a refinery (Vadodara) could lower the transportation cost by 60%, compared to delivering hydrogen using trucks.
  • Operationalising open access across state boundaries in letter and spirit, as envisioned in Electricity Act, 2003.
• Ensure access to round-the-clock renewable power for decentralised hydrogen production:
  • Address the challenge of intermittency of renewable power ( through a Co-hydrogen storage plant).
  • Scale up the target of 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030, aligning hydrogen production needs with broader electricity demand in the economy.
• Blend green hydrogen in existing processes: It will help build a technical understanding of processes involved in handling hydrogen on a large scale.
• Facilitate investments in early-stage: Piloting research and development.
  • Public funding will have to lead the way, but the private sector, too, has significant gains to be made by securing its energy future.
• Focus on domestic manufacturing: Learn from the experience of National Solar Mission and focus on domestic manufacturing:
  • Leveraging existing strengths: Major institutions like the DRDO, BARC and CSIR laboratories have been developing electrolyser and fuel-­cell technologies.
  • Need for a manufacturing strategy that can leverage the existing strengths and mitigate threats by integrating with the global value chain.