HIGHLIGHTS
- India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) participated at the Global Refining & Petrochemicals Congress, Delhi, May 5, and moderated a panel on Green Hydrogen - Roadmap, Opportunities & Challenges. Link
POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
- Launch of National Hydrogen Mission Soon: The government plans to launch a comprehensive green hydrogen mission in two months (by Jul-Aug) to take forward the first part of green hydrogen policy announced in February. . The mission is expected to announce a green hydrogen purchase obligation in fertilizer production and petroleum refining, akin to renewable purchase obligations (RPO). The mission is also expected to list the sectors that will have to start using green hydrogen on a voluntary basis and a roadmap for sectors such as fertilizer and petrochemicals to use the green fuel mandatorily. Link
- Quad Leaders’ Tokyo Summit 2022: The leaders of the Quad nations—Australia, India, Japan, and the United States—met on May 24, 2022, in Tokyo and announced that the Quad will advance the development of clean hydrogen and clean ammonia fuels. The Quad will also cooperate to enhance capacity in the broader Indo-Pacific region to participate in high-integrity carbon markets. Link
- G2G Partnerships
- Germany, India agreed to develop hydrogen roadmap: India and Germany agreed to develop the hydrogen roadmap in their agreement for green and sustainable development, as per the joint statement after the 6th Inter-Governmental Consultations between the two countries. The Roadmap will be based on the inputs by the Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force supported by the Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF). Germany has made an advance commitment to provide 10 billion euros of new and additional developmental assistance in India until 2030. Link
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India-Denmark Green Strategic Partnership: India and Denmark agreed to further strengthen the Green Strategic Partnership with a focus on green hydrogen, renewable energy and wastewater management. Both sides confirmed the aspirations to take global leadership in pushing for ambitious green energy transition and demonstrate the pathways to achieving it, focusing both on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Link
- India-Norway task force: of India think tank NITI Aayog has kick-started the work on setting up an India-Norway task force for collaboration on clean energy. The task force will facilitate collaboration between the two countries on hydrogen, renewables, low carbon solutions and energy storage. The purpose of the task force is to identify key projects for collaboration and mobilise relevant stakeholders at the highest level to ensure continued commitment and progress across ministries and agencies. The collaboration will include transfer and sharing of technology, knowhow and experience through the green hydrogen value chain and other relevant technologies including hydrogen storage and fuel cells. Link
- India, France joint commitment: India and France have vowed that they are committed to tackling climate change stronger than ever and discussed a partnership to ensure that environment-friendly technologies could be developed together to address the pressing global challenge. Going a step forward in commitment to clean energy, India invited France to participate in its initiative to make India a Green Hydrogen Hub under its National Hydrogen Mission. Link
- ReNew Power signs deal for storage project in Karnataka: ReNew Power has signed an agreement with the state government of Karnataka to invest INR 50,000 crore ($6.5 billion) over a period of seven years. The developer will invest in renewable energy (solar, wind, and hybrid), battery storage, and green hydrogen projects, which is expected to create 30,000 jobs in the state. Link
- GAIL to build green hydrogen plant at MP: State-owned GAIL (India) Ltd will build one of India's largest proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer at Guna in Madhya Pradesh to produce green hydrogen by the end of 2023, as it looks to supplement its natural gas business with carbon-free fuel. The project has been designed to produce around 4.3 metric tonnes of hydrogen per day (approximately 10 MW capacity) with a purity of about 99.9% which will be mixed in natural gas for supply to industries. Link
- Tata Group readying plan for battery company: India's Tata Group is drawing up plans to launch a battery company in India and abroad, as Tata deepens its push to build electric vehicles. The group is making a transition towards sustainability across businesses and the battery "blueprint" is part of a broader plan to be "future ready" by investing in renewable energy, hydrogen, storage solutions and the circular economy. Link
- Total Energies to buy stake in Adani’s hydrogen business: Total Energies, the French oil and gas major, is likely to pick up a minority stake of 10% or more in Adani group’s hydrogen business under the newly formed company Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL). The deal is in the final stages and an announcement is likely in the next few months. In India, Total had earlier partnered with Adani in 2018 with investments in Adani Gas Limited, city gas distribution business, associated LNG terminal business and gas marketing business. Link
- German multinational engineering and automotive technology firm Bosch, which completed 100 years of operation in India this year, is working towards pilot deployment of hydrogen-based vehicles by 2025-26 in India. Link
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
- EIB releases report on hydrogen investment solutions: The European Investment Bank (EIB) has published an investors’ view report on how the public sector can address the risks and challenges faced in the transition to a ‘more hydrogen-fuelled economy’. The findings confirm that the international investment community recognises the market opportunity that hydrogen represents as a zero-emission fuel, but also the challenges it currently faces to scale its deployment: 1. economic and regulatory conditions of hydrogen-based projects require improvement, to reduce risks and capital cost to mobilise the financing needed to meet the EU’s ambitious targets; 2. hydrogen sector being so interconnected, requires a more coherent value chain-based approach, which should allow various components for projects to develop in an ‘optimal’ way to support the broader hydrogen-based ecosystem. Link
- Transnational Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance announced: Six African countries have joined forces to launch the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance to collectively scale-up investment and development across the continent’s burgeoning green hydrogen landscape. Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania launched the alliance at the Green Hydrogen Global Assembly in Spain, with support from the United Nations (UN) Climate Change High-Level Champions; the Green Hydrogen Organization; the African Development Bank; and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Link
- Hydrogen timeline does not align with climate needs: WEC: A report from the World Energy Council has said, that the timeline for hydrogen project development does not align with the need to address climate change. Its key finding establishes that low-carbon hydrogen interest continues to grow - 22 countries have published a national hydrogen strategy, 11 of which have come since January 2021. More than 400 projects have been announced, with increasing interest from investors and financial institutions. There appears to be a gap between what technology providers could deploy and what investors are willing to finance. Link
- Imports to be cheaper than locally produced Green H2 in Europe by 2024 – RMI Study: Green hydrogen imported into Europe will be cheaper than all types of domestically produced hydrogen by 2024, a study by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a US non-profit environmental organisation, has claimed. Analysis from RMI projected that imported green hydrogen would cost around $3.75/kg in 2024, reducing to $2/kg by 2030. Domestically produced Green H2 would also reduce to around this level by 2030, RMI said, but it would not be competitive with imported hydrogen early on, costing around $4/kg in 2024. Link
- Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands partner to generate 20GW of green hydrogen: Energy Ministers from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium have released a statement emphasising the production of offshore wind energy and hydrogen in the North Sea. In a joint declaration, the representatives from each country have highlighted the use of renewable energies and clean technologies as a means to transition away from Russian fossil fuel reliance. This belief has also been backed up with significant targets: in raising the capacity of offshore wind production, there is potential for green hydrogen generation to radically be scaled up as a result. With this, the countries have also set a new target for green hydrogen capacity sitting at 20GW by 2030 with plans to expand this figure further for 2050. Link
- WEF announces Clean Hydrogen Project Accelerator: The Clean Hydrogen Project Accelerator, announced at WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, will enable WEF to work directly with project developers and create efficient pathways for Green H2 projects.. The acceleration programme will aim to drive progress at the project level to support cost reductions, innovation and bankability. The objective is to build ties between project developers, investors, and policymakers, and to accelerate the time between project announcement and final investment decision. Link
- Vietnam to invest $840 million in country’s first Green Hydrogen plant: TGS Green Hydrogen will begin constructing Vietnam’s first large scale Green Hydrogen plant next month, with operations expected to commence from early 2023. The plant will initially produce 24,000 tonnes of green hydrogen, 150,000 tonnes of ammonia and 195,000 tonnes of oxygen a year, with plans to double the capacity subsequently.. Link