GREEN HYDROGEN MISSION - ENVIRONMENT
News: Centre
clears ₹19,744-crore Green Hydrogen Mission
What's in the news?
● The
Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which is aimed at
making India the global hub for the production of green hydrogen.
Green Hydrogen Mission:
Backdrop:
● The
National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to
cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of
energy.
● The
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will formulate the scheme
guidelines for implementation.
Aim:
● To
make India the global Hub for the production of green hydrogen.
Funding:
● The
total outlay for the mission is ₹19,744 crore.
○ ₹17,490
crore for the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT)
programme.
○ ₹1,466
crore for the upcoming pilot projects.
○ ₹400
crore for R&D and
○ ₹388
crore towards other mission components.
SIGHT (Strategic Intervention for Green Hydrogen)
Programme:
Two
separate financial incentive mechanism - offered as part of SIGHT Programme.
Expected Mission
Outcomes:
1. Development of green hydrogen production capacities of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric Tonne) per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW in the country by 2030.
2. Renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW in the country.
3. Anticipates ₹8 lakh crore in investments in the sector by 2030.
4. Create over 6 lakh jobs by 2030.
5. Expected to reduce fossil fuel imports by over ₹1-lakh crore.
6. Abatement of nearly 50 MMT of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
7. Support pilot projects in emerging end-use sectors and production pathways.
8. Development of Green Hydrogen Hubs - Regions capable of supporting large-scale production.
9. Establishment of Green Hydrogen Ecosystem with robust standards and regulations framework.
10. Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership (SHIP) - a public-private partnership framework for research and development will be facilitated. R&D projects will be goal-oriented, time-bound, and suitably scaled up to develop globally competitive technologies.
11.
Skill development programmes will be
developed with the coordination from the respective sectors for capacity
building and training to the personnels.
Significance of the Mission:
● Creation
of export opportunities for green
hydrogen and its derivatives.
● Decarbonization
of Industrial, mobility and energy sectors.
● Reduction in dependence
on imported fossil fuels and feedback.
● Development
of indigenous manufacturing capabilities.
● Creation
of employment opportunities.
● Development
of cutting-edges technologies.
● Facilitate
demand creation, production, utilization and export of green hydrogen.
Go back to basics:
India and Green Hydrogen:
● At
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in May 2022, Minister of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said India will emerge as the
leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis
across the globe.
● Oil India Limited (OIL)
commissioned India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen plant in eastern Assam’s
Jorhat.
What is green hydrogen?
● A
colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic and highly combustible gaseous
substance, hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most abundant member of the
family of chemical elements in the universe.
● But
a color - green - prefixed to it makes hydrogen
the “fuel of the future”. The ‘green’ depends on how the electricity is
generated to obtain the hydrogen, which does
not emit greenhouse gas when burned.
● Green
hydrogen is produced through
electrolysis using renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind or hydel
power.
Benefits of Green Hydrogen:
1. Provides Renewable Grid Stability:
● The
intermittent nature of renewable energy, especially wind, leads to grid
instability. Green hydrogen can be stored
for long periods of time. The stored hydrogen can be used to produce
electricity using fuel cells.
○ In
a fuel cell, a device that converts the energy of a chemical into electricity,
hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen to produce electricity and water vapour.
○ Hydrogen,
thus, can act as an energy storage device and contribute to grid stability.
2. Saves Import Bill:
● India’s average annual
energy import bill is more than $100 billion.
● Thus,
Green Hydrogen has a potential to save India's sinking forex reserves.
3. Energy security:
● Green
Hydrogen helps in fulfilling India's commitment to move from a fossil and
import-dependent economy to a net-zero economy by 2070 in the Conference of
Parties in Glasgow, 2021.
● In
order to become energy independent by 2047, the Government stressed the need to
introduce green hydrogen as an alternative fuel that can make India the global hub and a major exporter of hydrogen.
4. Reduce CO2 burden:
● The
increased consumption of fossil fuel has made the country a high carbon dioxide
(CO2) emitter, accounting for nearly 7%
of the global CO2 burden.
● Thus,
Green Hydrogen with zero GHG emissions will reduce the CO2 burden.
5. Diversification of energy sources:
● Hydrogen
is an important source of energy since it has zero carbon content and is a
non-polluting source of energy in contrast to hydrocarbons that have net carbon
content in the range of 75-85 per cent.
● Thus,
it helps in diversification of the energy sources in India.
Challenges in Green Hydrogen:
1. Supply-Chain Issues:
● Green
Hydrogen hinges upon the creation of a supply chain, starting from the
manufacture of electrolysers to the production of green hydrogen, using
electricity from a renewable energy source.
2. Technology:
● Green
hydrogen needs electrolysers to be built on a larger scale. However, India
lacks technological features to manufacture large scale electrolysers.
3. Storage:
● Either
very high pressures or very high temperatures are required, both with their own
technical difficulties.
4. Explosion Hazard:
● It
is hazardous because of its low ignition energy and high combustion energy.
5. Risk to use:
● Automotive
fuels are highly inflammable, but a
vehicle laden with hydrogen is likely to be more vulnerable in case of a major
accident.
6. High Cost of Production:
● To
become competitive, the price per kilogram of green hydrogen has to reduce to a
benchmark of $2/kg. At these prices, green hydrogen can compete with natural
gas.
7. Energy intensivity:
● Creating
green hydrogen needs a huge amount of electricity, which means an enormous
increase in the amount of wind and solar power to meet global targets.
8. Lack of proper infrastructure:
● Only
500 Hydrogen stations exist globally. Only countable manufacturers are involved
as market players in this technology.
Measures to improve Green Hydrogen Mission:
1. Demand side:
Five pronged strategy:
● Create
an initial demand by providing
incentives to mature industries such as refining and fertilizers.
● Industries
manufacturing low emission hydrogen-based products inter alia green steel and
green cement need to be incentivised by Government policies.
● Blending hydrogen with
natural gas can act as a big booster shot which
can be facilitated by framing blending mandates, regulations and promoting H-CNG
stations.
● To
promote FCEVs, hydrogen fuel stations
may be planned on dedicated corridors where long-distance trucking is
widespread.
● The
concept of carbon tariffs needs to
be introduced on the lines of European countries.
2. Supply side:
Five pronged strategy:
● Investment in R&D
should be accelerated to bring its cost at par with fossils.
● Sustainable Alternative
Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme
with a target to produce 15 MMT of compressed biogas could be leveraged by
exploring biogas conversion into hydrogen.
● To
commercialize and scale-up nascent technologies, a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme may be introduced for
hydrogen-based projects.
● To
secure affordable financing, electrolyser manufacturing and hydrogen projects
need to be brought under Priority Sector
Lending (PSL).
● Since
two dominant cost factors for green hydrogen are renewable energy tariffs &
electrolyser costs, and India has the advantage of one of the lowest renewable
tariffs; the thrust should be on reducing the cost of electrolysers by
implementing the Production Linked
Incentive (PLI) scheme.
WAY FORWARD:
● Hydrogen
energy is at a nascent stage of
development but has significant potential for realizing the energy
transition in India.
● The
new policy is a futuristic vision that can help the country not only cut down
its carbon emissions but also diversify its energy basket and reduce external
reliance.
● India’s
transition can be a testament to the world on the achievement of energy
security, without compromising the goal of sustainable development.
The
Government must strongly pursue the objective of creating a Green Hydrogen
Energy to make India a global manufacturing
hub and place itself at the top of the green hydrogen export market.