India plans to emerge as global leader in green hydrogen: India tells US

• India is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertiliser and in refining, Singh told Kerry
• India would be conducting competitive bids for green hydrogen in next three-four months to pave the road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel

New Delhi: India plans to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen and the country is proposing to introduce purchase obligations for the same in fertiliser and refining, Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh told US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry during a telephonic conversation on Friday. "Union Minister RK 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 fertiliser and in refining. This is part of the government's commitment towards replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen," an official statement said.

India to conduct bids for green hydrogen in 3-4 months: Singh

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 next three-four months to pave the road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel. India is looking at bids for 4,000 MW of electrolysers capacity.   The other countries need to come up with more electrolyser plants to bring down the costs.

Renewable energy capacity

According to the statement, Singh told Kerry that India has recently crossed the 100 GW milestone in solar and wind capacity installation. "If we add Hydro capacity also, the total installed renewable capacity is 147 MW. Further, 63 GW of renewable capacity is under construction, which makes India one of the fastest growing in terms of renewable capacity addition," said the statement.

Singh told the US Presidential envoy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed the highest importance on the environment. The minister also suggested that India and the USA could work together in areas of innovation for power and technology, pointing out the requirement of bringing down the cost of storage of renewable power. "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," said the statement.

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