Govt to unveil 1st round of concessions for green hydrogen facilities soon: RK Singh

• 'India wants to emerge as a world leader in green hydrogen and an export hub'
• 'We have approval for the National Hydrogen Mission on the anvil. Then we will come out with second tranche of facilities after the Mission document is approved'

New Delhi: The government is going to announce the first stage of concessions, which will be available to companies interested in setting up green hydrogen facilities, in the next 15 days, said Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh on Thursday. He reiterated that India wants to emerge as a world leader in green hydrogen and an export hub for the fuel and green ammonia. Singh was delivering the Chief Guest address at the ET Energy Solar Power Congress.

"We will be issuing the first stage of the orders of the concessions to be given for Green Hydrogen, like free transmission and banking etc, in 15 days. This will indicate the facilities to be available for those who want to make Green Hydrogen," said Singh

National Hydrogen Mission to be approved soon: RK Singh

While asserting that the government will come out with bids for green hydrogen soon, Singh said, "We have approval for the National Hydrogen Mission on the anvil. Then we will come out with second tranche of facilities after the Mission document is approved. We will be a world leader in green hydrogen. We will be a hub for export of green hydrogen to different countries that need the fuel, green ammonia." 

PLI scheme: Govt to launch 2nd bid round for 40 GW solar PV manufacturing 

Recalling the overwhelming response received by the government in the first round of bidding for solar PV manufacturing Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, Singh said that the ministry will now come out with another bid round for setting up 40 GW of solar modules and cells manufacturing facilities. 

"The first PLI scheme had an outlay of only Rs 4,500 crore. And we have finalised manufacturing capacities of around 8,730 MW from polysilicon to modules. But we are coming out with another round. The government has already sanctioned an additional Rs 19,500 crore for the PLI scheme in the Budget. The efficiency floor we are keeping is minimum of 24 percent. The second PLI bid will be for around 40,000 MW," Singh said.

"We want to emerge as a country which is not only self-sufficient in high-efficiency solar PV cells and modules but is also an export hub. And we will get there because the first bid which was just for about 9,000 MW received bids for about 54,000 MW. And I am positive that the next round for capacities of 40,000 MW will receive bids for 70,000-80,000 MW," he added.

'India bidding out battery storage facilities on huge scale'

Acknowledging that one of the major challenges for large-scale deployment of renewable energy (RE) is the cost of battery storage facilities, the minister said that India's efforts to in this regard are unparalleled in the world because of the scale at which the country is planning to develop these facilities. "The ability to store RE is a major limitation that needs to be overcome if we are to deploy renewable energy on a large scale. Despite the fact that developed countries have been talking about emission reduction, net zero, etc, they have not really done anything insofar as battery storage is concerned. The largest storage capacity in the world is about 330 MW and it is in the US."

"We brought out a PLI scheme on battery storage in India. And we received a huge response. The first round received bids for around 50 GW capacity of storage. India's initial bid was for 1,000 MWh for the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC). Another 3,000 MWh was bid out by NTPC. And this is just the start. Our volumes will be huge," said Singh.

RK Singh calls out developed nations on climate commitments

Pointing out that the pace of carbon emissions needs to come down faster, Singh called out developed nations for failing to deliver on their climate commitments. "This (the urgency to commit to reducing carbon emissions) is what was discussed in Glasgow. And different countries gave enhanced ambitions over what they had committed in Paris. But unfortunately, what we have seen right since Kyoto is that commitments are made but not fulfilled… The per capita emissions of developed nations is way beyond the world average. Whereas India's per capita emission is one-third of the world average. It is the developed countries which have to come to the table and start making a difference," said the minister.

He added, "Independent assessments came to the conclusion that India is the only G20 economy whose actions in energy transition are in consonance with what it pledged in COP-21 in Paris."

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