Reducing pollution and greenhouse emissions is critical for the survival of generations ahead. For the same reason, nations across the globe are taking steps to transform themselves towards seeking cleaner means of generating energy from renewable sources. To make India the global hub for the green hydrogen revolution, an ambitious goal has been set. And steps to achieve this goal have been seen in widespread adoption across the country.
Hydrogen has recently been known to provide a significant advantage in reducing carbon emissions. However, currently, less than 0.1% of the global hydrogen production is produced with renewable energy, while the rest is produced from coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.
How Is Green Hydrogen Produced?
A clean source of energy, green hydrogen is produced via the process of electrolysing water, which in turn uses electrical currents generated by various sources of power like wind, solar, etc. The process generates 100% clean energy and separates hydrogen from oxygen into water molecules.
In the process of developing green hydrogen, the consumption of electricity gives a strategic advantage for the solar and wind energy developers, as they become partners in producing green hydrogen. Implementing a green hydrogen energy storage system allows solar and wind producers to mitigate grid fluctuations and handle the intermittent nature of their power sources. This ensures a stable and undisturbed flow of energy, which is especially critical during turbulent weather or the low-sunlight wet months.
Benefits Of Green Hydrogen For India’s Energy Transition
Hydrogen Promotes The Generation Of Renewables And Acts As an Energy Storage Solution
Green Hydrogen bridges the gap between the generation of renewable energy, its storage up and its consumption. Production of green hydrogen is a boon for industrialists and the community alike, as it promises to address the ongoing concern of variable electricity supply and its demand. With the ability to store the generated energy, it improves the efficiency of the working, ensuring a continuous supply of electricity and availability during all times of wet and adverse weather conditions. Green hydrogen is known to help deal with a sudden drop in renewable energy, ensuring an uninterrupted supply while maximizing the resource utilized.
Hydrogen Is Versatile, With Easy Distribution Across Sectors And Regions
Due to the very nature of hydrogen and its compounds, as they have low density, they can easily be transported across different regions and sectors. Through pipelines, the transportation of hydrogen becomes a seamless process, with negligible loss suffered during its transport. With few regions in India that do not possess the environmental conditions that are required to generate solar and wind energy for most of the time, importing renewable energy on a large scale to such locations will make hydrogen more economical.
Hydrogen Supports Decarbonization For Various Industries
In order to bring down the carbon emissions and reduce the ill effects of global warming, India has to decarbonize across various sectors to achieve this goal. And hydrogen can significantly reduce emissions across sectors such as steel, transportation, chemical industries etc, by the process of decarbonization. Not only does hydrogen support energy storage, but it can also be used as a substitute for generating energy using fossil fuels. Hydrogen is a game-changer, in particular for industries that rely heavily on electricity generation.
Challenges Seen With The Production Of Green Hydrogen
Difficulty With Technology Adoption and Lack of Employee Skills:
As the production of green hydrogen using renewable sources of energy is still an emerging market, there are very few skilled individuals who have the talent required for production and its storage. Further, to add to the problem, there is also a heavy dependence on international markets for infrastructure and its technology, making it an expensive production process for the Indian market.
Inefficient Clean Hydrogen Infrastructure And Technology
Currently, India as a nation lacks the necessary environment and infrastructure needed for clean hydrogen production in a sustainable manner. To have a sustainable production of clean hydrogen as a source of fuel, the country needs robust infrastructure and advanced mechanisation that will not only aid in the fast spread use of clean hydrogen for fuel but also meet the global demand for clean energy.
Availability of Water in Large Scale Quantities
The electrolysis process that uses water to separate hydrogen from oxygen requires fresh deionised water. It cannot use raw, unfiltered water. This adds up the cost for the treatment of water and finding clean water. Additionally, the availability of water is one of the most underestimated concerns, but most time it becomes a major setback during the large-scale production of green hydrogen in India. The process of electrolysis requires about 9 litres of clean water to produce every 1 kg of green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen has a critical role to play in achieving India’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2070, especially for those sectors of industry that rely heavily on fossil fuels for their source of energy generation, and other segments that face difficulty in decarbonizing through direct renewable energy electrification.
The National Green Hydrogen Mission
A nationwide policy framework launched by the government of India in 2022 to promote the production, consumption, transportation, and export of green hydrogen and its compounds. The framework of the policy is set with the ambitious target of enabling India to become a global leader in green hydrogen production, thereby reducing the use of fossil fuels, decarbonizing various industries, and encouraging a sustainable future.
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Key Strategies And Objectives
- Increasing Production Capacity: The policy aims to scale the annual production capacity of green hydrogen by at least 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) by 2030.
- Incentivising policies: To facilitate increased production of green hydrogen, the government is willing to waive inter-state transmission charges for renewable energy that is used for green hydrogen production, and for 25 years from the date of commissioning.
- Development of Green Hydrogen Hubs: Under the scope of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, it will identify and develop necessary infrastructure in those regions that are likely to support large-scale production and consumption of hydrogen. This will further support streamlining production and distribution.
- Become An Exporter Of Green Hydrogen In Volumes: Support India towards becoming a substantial exporter of green hydrogen, with an ability to export at least 10% of the produced hydrogen, exporting approximately 10 MMT per annum by 2030.
With a lot more private and public sector companies coming at the forefront to produce green hydrogen, it highlights their commitment to developing sustainable measures that harness the full potential of renewable energy. As a country, in order to succeed in a systemized manner, the government should scale up the hydrogen production in a more coordinated way, establish robust policies and collaborations, as this will enable investments by private entities towards developing infrastructure and factories for the production of green hydrogen.
Frequently asked questions :
Ans: Green hydrogen, as the name suggests, is a clean source of energy generation that is produced through an electrolysis process powered by renewable energy.
Ans: Not all forms of hydrogen are a clean source of energy. Only green hydrogen made from a renewable source of energy is considered completely clean and sustainable because it doesn’t produce any carbon emissions.
Ans: Green hydrogen minimizes grid dependence, allows for storage of energy, provides a clean source of energy with no carbon emissions, creates employment opportunities, and helps bring in investments through the transportation of energy.
