How can India unlock its green hydrogen ambitions?

India can learn from the global hydrogen ecosystem as it looks to develop one. 

Hydrogen will act as a critical enabler to achieving the global targets to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5-degree Celsius, adapt to adverse impacts of climate change and foster low greenhouse gas emissions development. In 2020, there was an inescapable excitement around hydrogen. Globally, countries are proposing ambitious targets, pilot projects and huge amounts of investment towards creating a hydrogen ecosystem.

Current demand for hydrogen in India:

• Industry sectors such as refineries and fertilizers account for major hydrogen demand in India mainly through grey hydrogen.
• Grey hydrogen is largely produced by natural gas therefore, emitting huge amount of CO2 emissions.
• Hydrogen can be useful in application that require high temperatures (above 250 degrees Celsius), especially in the chemical, iron and steel industry. In such cases, hydrogen can serve as an excellent alternative to other energy sources.
• Also, it is essential to promote usage of hydrogen in sectors where direct electrification is not feasible.

Following are the supporting pillars of green hydrogen economy in India:

• The renewable energy in India is among the cheapest in the world. Hence, renewable LCOE will be minimum.
• The national targets of achieving 500 GW of RE capacity by 2030 will further complement production cost and volumes of green hydrogen.
• Despite having “must run” status, there is curtailment of renewable energy causing wastage of energy. This could further increase with increase in number of renewable energy installations in the coming years. This excessive generation of clean energy could either be stored or used for other purposes such as production of hydrogen through water electrolysis process.
• Government of India’s objective to cut its emission intensity by 33-35% of 2005 levels by 2030 requires a more diversified approach. Sectors such as industries, transportation and buildings need to further reduce their carbon intensity. The techno-economic feasibility of green hydrogen production in the near future will provide a befitting solution to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors.

Global initiative towards hydrogen economy

Hydrogen economy in India: road to green could traverse the blue

It is highly debatable to discuss the adoption of fossil fuel based hydrogen rather than green hydrogen. But, both blue and green form of hydrogen will be necessary to drive hydrogen based economy. The path for deployment of hydrogen will require an amalgam of technological maturity and its competitiveness with other existing methods.

Also, India aims for 100 million tonnes of coal gasification by 2030. Therefore, India has an opportunity to support blue hydrogen using carbon capture, utilization and storage technology. A minimum subsidy can also be allocated for the same and this will create enough hydrogen demand and infrastructure for green hydrogen to enter the market.

Eventually, green hydrogen will become prevalent and utilize existing storage, transmission and distribution infrastructure.