India to emerge as a leader in Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia.
India had one of the fastest rates of growth of Renewable Energy capacity in the world.
India had pledged in COP-21 in Paris that by 2030; 40% of its power generation capacity will be from non-fossil fuel sources.
It had already reached at 38.5% and if the capacity under installation is added, it comes to 48.5%.
India has set a target of 450 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.
India had achieved universal access by connecting every village and every hamlet under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram JyotiYojana Scheme and connecting every household under Saubhagya Scheme.
India has already touched 200 GW of demand even when the effects of COVID-19 was still there.
The demand had crossed what it was during pre-COVID time and it is expected that electricity demand will continue to rise.
Mechanism of ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers) adopted, which will also provide protection to Indian solar cell producing Industries.
India proposes to green industry sectors to replace Grey Hydrogen (drawn from imported natural gas) with Green Hydrogen and for this it will come out with a Green Hydrogen Purchase Obligation for different sectors like petroleum and fertilizer.
It will also provide huge demand for domestically manufactured solar and wind equipments as well as storage.
About Hydrogen
There are no natural hydrogen deposits on earth, it has to be extracted from other compounds by a chemical process.
The vast majority of industrial hydrogen is currently produced from natural gas through a process known as steam methane reforming or SMR.
Producing hydrogen in this way is sometimes referred to as brown or grey or even blue hydrogen.
Green hydrogen production
Hydrogen can also be produced by the electrolysis of water (using an electric current to break water, H2O, into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen).
If this electric current is produced by a renewable source (g. Solar PV or a wind turbine), the clean hydrogen produced is known as green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen Status
Less than 1% of hydrogen produced in the world is green hydrogen.
India consumes about six million tonnes of hydrogen every year. This could increase to 28 million tonnes by 2050.
India has favorable geographic location and abundance of sunlight and wind for the production of green hydrogen.
India will become a net exporter of green hydrogen by 2030 due to its cheap renewable energy tariffs, according to the Global Hydrogen Council.
Green hydrogen currently costs or Rs 371-446, which is nearly triple the cost of grey hydrogen.
The price will decrease further as production and sales increase.
Significance
Under the Paris Climate Agreement, India pledged to reduce the emission intensity of its economy by 33-35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Our ability to produce large quantities of green hydrogen will play a major role in providing an alternative to fossil fuels as we transition to low emissions and work towards a clean, healthy environment.
Through the use of green hydrogen, we can foresee a sustainable future in handling increased demand of clean energy.