HIGHLIGHTS
- India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) presented ‘25/25 National Green Hydrogen Hub Development Plan’ for creation of 25 National Green Hydrogen Projects and Five National H2 Hubs by 2025 to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Ministry of Steel (MoS). IH2A is also presenting the proposal and its implications to the States outlined in the Hubs plan.
- On July 18, India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) attended an industry consultation organized jointly by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and proposed recommendations for hydrogen commercialization in India such as development of green hydrogen hubs and projects, price subsidy, offtake agreements, availability of public funding, harmonization of standards and setting up National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) like umbrella body in the form of National Hydrogen Development Corporation (NHDC). These recommendations were outlined in IH2A’s proposed 25/25 National Green Hydrogen Hub Development Plan that was released and submitted to the government last month. Link
POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
- India needs $15B funding to set up 15 GW H2 capacity by 2030: V K Saraswat: India will need a funding of USD 15 billion to set up 15 GW (gigawatt) of green hydrogen capacity by 2030, NITI Aayog Member V K Saraswat said. Green hydrogen is the fuel of the future, but its price continues to be prohibitive for sectors like fertilizer and refinery which need to use it, said Saraswat said. He also suggested that for the price of green energy to come down to USD 1/kg, 80 per cent reduction in cost of electrolyser is needed, electricity cost has to slash to 2 cents per kwh (kilowatt hour), electrolyser plant life must increase to 20 years and electrolyser efficiency must increase by 76%. Link
- India should invest $1B in GH2 R&D by 2030: NITI Aayog: Besides focusing on enhancing India’s manufacturing potential for green hydrogen, there is an urgent need to funnel resources in the R&D space concentrating on electrolysers, fuel cells and associated components, a NITI Aayog study said. The think tank has favoured creating a corpus of $1 billion by 2030 for investing in various R&D initiatives related to green hydrogen. The R&D efforts should focus on efficiency improvement, cost reduction, stack life extension, and development of a technology less dependent on metal and material imports. Link
- Centre directs Steel industry to draw action plan to reduce carbon emissions: In accordance with the Central government's COP26 commitments, the Ministry of Steel has directed the stakeholders to develop a time-bound action plan to reduce carbon emissions in the steel industry. According to the ministry, the iron and steel industry globally accounts for around 8% of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on an annual basis, whereas India contributes 12% to the total CO2 emissions. Link
- ONGC signs MoU with Greenko ZeroC: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with renewable energy company Greenko ZeroC to make green hydrogen, and to jointly pursue opportunities in renewables, and other derivatives of green hydrogen. Link
- Triton EV to manufacture H2-run two & three wheelers in India: Triton Electric Vehicle is set to enter hydrogen-run two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments manufacturing at its Bhuj facility, Gujarat, where it plans to start the production of EV trucks this year itself. The company is already in discussion with a few Indian states for setting up a well-equipped EV car manufacturing base in India with all the advanced technologies and state-of-the-art infrastructure. It will also be exporting these two-wheelers and three-wheelers from India. Link
- Acme to build 1.5 GW GH2 project in India: Indian developer Acme Group has announced plans to invest INR 52,474 crore ($6.61 billion) to build a green hydrogen and green ammonia project in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The project will produce green ammonia through the ammonia synthesis loop process with electrolysis-based hydrogen. Acme will build a 5 GW solar PV plant to power 1.5 GW of electrolysis capacity for green hydrogen production and 1.1 million tonnes of ammonia synthesis loop. Link
- Petronas Hydrogen and Continental Automotive to invest in Karnataka: The Karnataka Government has signed MoUs with the Malaysia-based Petronas Hydrogen, and Continental Automotive Components (India) for a total investment of INR 32,000 crore. The Chief Minister has assured the two companies of all cooperation and urged the companies to implement the projects within the time frame. Petronas has committed to invest INR 31,200 crore to set up a renewable energy plant that will add about 3000 jobs. Continental Automotive will invest about INR 1000 crore in an R & D centre which is expected to add about 6000 jobs. Link
- Rolls-Royce partners with Hyundai Motor Group: Rolls-Royce and Hyundai Motor Group have announced plans to collaborate on bringing all-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel cell technology to the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) market. The partnership will leverage Rolls-Royce’s aviation and certification capabilities and Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen fuel cell technologies and industrialisation capability. Link
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
- Egypt and India sign MoU to build a green hydrogen factory worth $8B: Egypt has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an Indian company, ReNew Power Private Limited, to build a green hydrogen factory in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The MoU was signed by several government agencies: New & Renewable Energy Authority of Egypt, General Authority of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and Egypt’s Sovereign Fund; and Renew Power, one of India’s most active Green Hydrogen proponents. According to the MoU, ReNew Power will build a factory to produce 20,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year, with investments worth $8 billion. Link
- EU to sign hydrogen deal with Namibia to offset reliance on Russian energy: To support the country's 'green' hydrogen sector and boost European imports of the fuel as the bloc works to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the European Union is planning to sign an energy deal with Namibia. Under the plan, the European Union will sign a memorandum of understanding with Namibia on hydrogen and minerals at the UN Climate Conferencedue to take place in Egypt in November 2022. The EU wants easier access to minerals in Namibia and plans geological projects to explore the resources of the country. Link
- Amsterdam port to host 500 MW green hydrogen plant: After completing the first feasibility study with the Port of Amsterdam, HyCC, a joint venture of the European electrochemical company, Nobian and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG), has now unveiled plans to build a green hydrogen plant in the Amsterdam port area by 2027. In the future, the new plant could also be linked to a national pipeline network to enable the exchange of hydrogen between industrial clusters. HyCC is also working with the Port of Amsterdam and Tata Steel on a 100 MW plant at the site of Tata Steel IJmuiden, called project H2ermes. Link
- Construction begins on world’s largest integrated green hydrogen, ammonia plant: Unigel, a Brazilian chemical company, started construction of a green hydrogen plant in Bahia, in north-eastern Brazil. As per the company, the facility will be the country's first hydrogen plant and the world's largest integrated green hydrogen and ammonia complex. Located in the Camaçari Industrial Complex, the new plant will have an initial production capacity of 10,000 tons/year of green hydrogen and 60,000 tons/year of green ammonia. Link
- UK opens world’s first national-clean hydrogen subsidy scheme as it aims for 10GW by 2030: The UK government opened the world’s first national clean-hydrogen subsidy scheme, which will use a contracts-for-difference (CfD) style set-up to help fund an initial 1GW of green hydrogen and 1GW of blue hydrogen projects as it aims to reach 10GW of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030. A single application process will enable developers to access ongoing CfD-style revenue support from the government’s Hydrogen Business Model (HBM), as well as up to £240m ($288.5m) of grant funding from the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) “to support the upfront costs of developing and building low carbon hydrogen production projects”. Link
- Green hydrogen cheaper than LNG in Europe: With gas prices sky-high, green hydrogen is now cheaper than natural gas in eight countries across Europe. Research by BloombergNEF claims that in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, it’s currently cheaper to burn the green gas. Green hydrogen is produced using an electrolyser powered by renewable electricity, whereas blue hydrogen is made using natural gas – so the report is key in demonstrating that currently the cleaner option is also the cheaper one. Investment in green hydrogen is becoming more attractive, as the market grows, and it becomes a tangible rival of LNG. Link