Govt. keen to partner with the industry for developing green hydrogen ecosystem: R K Singh

The government will partner with the industry for developing technology for fuel cells, hydrogen storage and other technologies needed for developing a green hydrogen ecosystem in the country, said R K Singh the India's Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy on Wednesday.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day International Conference on Green Hydrogen (ICGH-2023), organized by the Indian Government in New Delhi, the Union Minister emphasized that India is set to overachieve the target of 50% power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 and has emerged as a leader in adopting green hydrogen.

Reiterating that India has launched incentive scheme for electrolyzer manufacturing and to produce green hydrogen, the Union Minister noted that the country is a base for huge steel manufacturing capacity, a big mobility market, and fertilizers and cement, thereby providing big opportunities for green steel, green mobility, green fertilizers and green cement.

"The R&D roadmap will have cross-cutting partnerships among government, industry and IITs, so that patents too are owned by all of us in common. So, come and partner with us, this is the biggest market in the world, and we prefer solutions developed here in India," Singh added.

The International Conference on Green Hydrogen is the first and the biggest event so far organized by the Government of India on green hydrogen since the launch of the National Green Hydrogen Mission.

The Mission aims to build capabilities to produce at least 5 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of Green Hydrogen per annum by 2030 and support replacement of hydrogen produced from fossil fuel sources with green hydrogen in ammonia production and petroleum refining, blending green hydrogen in City Gas Distribution systems, production of steel with green hydrogen, and use of green hydrogen-derived synthetic fuels (like green methanol) to replace fossil fuels in various sectors including mobility, shipping, and potentially aviation.

In so far, work is already underway on projects for setting up 3.5 million tons of green hydrogen manufacturing capacity in India as part of the Mission.

The draft R&D Roadmap for Green Hydrogen Ecosystem in India was released as part of the conference and is open for public comments.

The draft roadmap lays down classification of projects into grand challenge projects, mission mode projects and blue sky projects. These three types of projects have been identified across hydrogen production, storage, transportation and end use applications.

After obtaining public comments and adoption of final R&D roadmap by the government, R&D project proposals will be called for and projects will be awarded.