India plans to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen and the country is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining, power minister R K Singh has told the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry.
In a telephonic conversation last evening, Singh also informed Kerry that India will invite bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to encourage viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel, according to a power ministry statement.
India is looking at bids for 4,000 MW of electrolysers capacity, it stated.
As per the statement, Kerry has congratulated India on achievements in renewable energy on reaching 146GW Renewables with 63 GW under construction and 25 GW under bids.
“Union Minister R K Singh has informed Kerry about India’s plan to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen. India is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining. This is part of the government’s commitment towards replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen,” the statement said.
Singh underlined to the US Presidential envoy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi places the highest importance on the environment.
He suggested to him that India and the USA could work together in the areas of innovations for power and technology, pointing out the requirement of bringing down the cost of storage of renewable power.
The minister informed Kerry about the recent milestone the country had achieved by crossing 100 GW in Installed solar and wind capacity.
“If we add Hydro capacity also, the total installed renewable capacity is 147 GW. Further, 63 GW of renewable capacity is under construction which makes India one of the fastest growing in terms of renewable capacity addition,” it stated.
Singh also informed Kerry that the National Hydrogen Energy Mission has been launched to enable cost competitive green hydrogen production. He added that India would be conducting competitive bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to pave the road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel.
The other countries need to come up with more electrolyser plants to bring down the costs.
It was suggested that India and the USA should work at setting up an alternate supply chain for lithium in order to secure input material for battery energy storage.
