India has the potential to be a Green Hydrogen exporter, minister of state (independent charge) science & technology Dr Jitendra Singh has said.

Addressing the International Conference of Green Hydrogen 2023 here on Friday, Dr Singh said prime minister Narendra Modi approved the launch of the National Green Hydrogen Mission with a budgetary outlay of about 2.4 billion dollars and it reflects India’s firm resolve address the difficult challenges of de-carbonization on our pathways to Net Zero in 2070.

He pointed out the painstaking efforts undertaken over the last two years since the PM had announced India’s intention to create a dedicated mission for Green Hydrogen culminating in the announcement of the National Green Hydrogen Mission in January this Year.

The Minister said, India has been at the forefront of the global narrative for fighting climate change and has done far more than what would be a commensurate response that would be called for on account of our historical or even our current per capita carbon emissions.

Dr Singh said India is uniquely poised to emerge as a prominent global leader in production of Green Hydrogen not just on the basis of its abundant renewable energy resources and the benefits of one of the world’s lowest costs of regeneration, but also because of its R&D ecosystem and the framework designed for R&D in cross-cutting sectors of hydrogen production, transport, electrolyze manufacturing, support infrastructure, fuel cell EVs, storage and utilisation.

He said as Minister for Science and Technology, it was wonderful to see the positive synergy between the private sector and academic institutions and he hoped that this translates into effective collaboration in every field of research required in the expansion of possibilities of Green Hydrogen.

He also pointed out that Hydrogen Mission has great potential for job generation through the Startup ecosystem as India has emerged number three in the world with about one lakh startups and 100-odd Unicorns in various sectors including in cutting edge science frontiers. He said, Indian Startup system proposed to create a mechanism for harnessing proactive support of banking finances.

He told the audience that a draft R&D roadmap for Green Hydrogen Ecosystem in India has been released and thanked Prof Ajay Sood, principal scientific advisor, and his team and the ministry of new and renewable energy for this milestone. A public-private partnership framework for R&D called the Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership or SHIP will be facilitated under the Mission. The Framework will entail creating a dedicated R&D fund, with contributions from Industry and Government institutions, the Minister added.

The R&D programme under the Mission will seek to develop globally competitive technologies in various segments. Consortium-based approach and leveraging the strengths of each institution/industry will be encouraged.

The minister said India will also leverage the inherent strengths and technological experience of institutions such as BARC, ISRO, CSIR, IITs, IISc and many more and expressed confidence that this will see some path breaking research that will come out of the exercise and create huge multiplier effects on the domestic green hydrogen manufacturing sector in this decade and the next.

In his address, Prof Sood said, Green Hydrogen is here to stay and informed that so far 16 nations have announced Green Hydrogen Mission Plans. He said, an integrated approach is needed to minimise failure to this Mission and it should be looked at from five viewpoints-technical, commercial, regulatory, product integration and logistics.

Green Hydrogen is an Idea whose time has come: Hardeep Singh Puri

Speaking at the Valedictory Session of the coveted conference, union minister of petroleum & natural gas and housing & urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said, “The conference being organised under the aegis of ministry of new and renewable energy, in partnership with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry, has witnessed the presence of Captains from the Industry, deliberating through 25 expert sessions with over 1500 people attending these sessions. It is satisfying to see that we are moving towards Hydrogen Based Economy, which is need of the hour.”

There is now a global consensus that we need to make a transition to renewable energy, he said. “India has embarked on a new journey and requires active support and collaboration amongst all the stakeholders and with the recent launch of National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Government means business.”

The petroleum minister also said that India is 4th in terms of installed renewable energy capacity and has achieved some of the lowest long term levelized costs for solar and wind power generation. “We have natural advantage in producing Green Hydrogen as we have abundance of solar energy and investments in our power grid. We have the apt climate, resources, adequate production and strong supply-chain for Green Hydrogen.”

Speaking on the immense potential India beholds for the world in the domain of clean and renewable energy, he said that India is climatically blessed and with the government’s unwavering commitment for making the world a better place to live, the leading financial institutions have shown keen interest to invest in India.

“The European Investment Bank (EIB) will be our Hydrogen ally and would support for developing large scale Industry hub with a funding of 1 billion Euros. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently conveyed their intent to provide $20–$25 billion over five years to aid India’s aspirations for green growth. That’s not all, The World Bank has approved $1.5 Billion in Financing to Support India’s Low-Carbon transition journey, said Puri.

Terming PSUs as the major game changers for ensuring a smooth Green Hydrogen Economy transition the Petroleum Minister said, “The PSUs are focussed on ensuring a Hydrogen based economy. They have targeted to produce more than 1 MMT of Green Hydrogen by 2030. The global demand for hydrogen is expected to reach 200 million tons by the same time, basis the IEA report”, added Shri Puri.