According to a top government official, India plans to give green hydrogen fuel producers incentives worth at least 10% of their costs under a $2 billion outlay set to begin before the end of June.
For India, with less than five decades to go for its net-zero target, and with energy demand set to grow 25 percent by 2030, the National Green Hydrogen Mission is more than a stepping stone to a carbon-neutral future.
Green hydrogen, or hydrogen produced using renewable electricity to split water through electrolysis, will help India reach official targets of 500 GW of installed capacity of renewable energy by 2030 from the current 172 GW from non-fossil fuel sources.
Large firms such as Larsen & Toubro, Reliance, Adani, JSW Energy ReNew Power, Acme Solar and state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation have invested in green hydrogen and associated technologies.
India plans to push green hydrogen in petroleum refineries, in production of iron and steel, and fertilizers. Its ambitions include becoming a green hydrogen fueling hub for maritime transport. Other important applications will include fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), fuel cell electric buses, material handling forklifts and more.
The hydrogen mission administrators have sweetened the pot for producers by offering the incentive for domestic manufacturing of electrolyzers, which will be key to cost-effective green hydrogen production, and a 25-year waiver of inter-state transmission charges for renewable energy plants set up to feed green hydrogen production facilities.
India expects domestic green hydrogen to achieve cost parity by 2030 with natural gas-based hydrogen (grey hydrogen, different from blue hydrogen that is produced using fossil fuels but with carbon capture systems cutting emissions).
India opposes diluting the definition of green hydrogen to include fuel produced from low carbon energy, as some developed nations have proposed in G20 meetings, Power and Renewable Energy Minister R. K. Singh recently told Reuters. India’s goal is to produce green hydrogen at the lowest rate in the world, at $1-$1.50 per pound, down from the present $4-$5 per pound.
