Launched in 2021, India’s National Hydrogen Energy Mission aims to make the country a global hub for green hydrogen, targeting 5 million tonnes annually by 2030. Standing in the way of these high ambitions are unresolved infrastructural bottlenecks, lack of enough incentives and inadequate access to technologies. 

"There is a need for investment in hydrogen grid networks to successfully embed these as the mainstream entities source. Lack of infrastructure for green hydrogen, transport and storage could represent a risk exposure of future hydrogen projects.Hydrogen today is produced and consumed at the same location, whereas achieving economies of scale for large green hydrogen facilities and developing hydrogen economy would require developing shared infrastructure and clusters demand and consumption. Industry, government and investors need to work together to build an environment where innovation is encouraged, where market demand is posted and where collaboration between different players in the supply chain is also incentivized and government, universities and research institutions together form the clusters with private sector,” said Prof. S Dasappa, Chair, Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research, Professor, Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. 

Prof Dasappa made these remarks at the International Climate Summit 2022 themed, “Opportunities for Green Hydrogen in India” held in Bergen, Norway, on 30–31. August. Greenstat, Arena H2Cluster and the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum represented the Norwegian partnership while the Indian side was represented by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Invest India. 

"Establishing manufacturing zones will contribute to speed up the transition and develop hydrogen strategic industrial clusters that can contribute to lower cost of hydrogen..The absence of sufficient capacity to transport and store green hydrogen in India may delay new projects or force them to run by lower capacity, therefore affecting the profitability and also increasing the financing costs.There is also a need to develop the bunker facilities near ports just to store green ammonia for both exports or for fuel for the maritime industry and it will be a vital part of the infrastructure and scale up programme. The government policies need to cover the entire value chain of hydrogen from demand creation to supply and to market enablers such as infrastructure and supply chain development," added Prof Dasappa. 

“Natural gas sector looks towards blending of hydrogen in natural gas to be used for cooking and transport purposes. The Gas Authority of India has started spiking hydrogen in natural gas for supply to the households for cooking purposes in central India as a part of India's national hydrogen mission to establish techno commercial feasibility for blending hydrogen in city gas distribution networks. Similar tests have been reported to have been done in the UK and they would perhaps decide to blend 20% hydrogen in the domestic houses natural gas by the winter of 2023. Such initiatives lead to their initial states.But they would go a long way in using green hydrogen as a sustainable natural gas,” said Alok Sharma, Executive Director at Centre for High Technology (CHT) and Treasurer of Hydrogen Association of India. 

“India has set itself a hugely formidable task to meet 50% of its electricity requirement from renewable energy sources by 2030. In order to realize this ambitious target, India is transitioning towards establishing a new model of economic development. The transition towards green energy definitely promises to be a tremendous economic opportunity. As per the estimates of International Energy Agency, India could easily create 5 billion tonnes of green hydrogen demand and subsequently replace grey hydrogen in the refinery's and the fertiliser sector. It will also result in abatement of 28 millions tonnes of CO2. This proportion will grow as the clean hydrogen economy starts flourishing and will further result in 400 million tonnes of CO2 abatement by 2050.  It is encouraging to note that India is particularly well placed to become a global leader including the green hydrogen domain. Debottlenecking of infrastructure challenges and providing incentives for export to other countries,” said Ajay Dixit, Executive Director, Corporate HSE, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC). 

"We have to create a good demand and supply balance for the industry to invest, attract, attract investment in all the value chain of the hydrogen.The demand creation I believe should not be by having some amount, minimum, mandatory, mandatory putting on the industries, but it has to be supported by viability, gap funding, tax incentives so that industries also would be able to make hydrogen competitively.The supply side, we had to be extremely careful what type of electrolyte, what type of material of construction, so that at least these hydrogen economy should be sustainable in long term.Had begun blueprints.It's a long way to go.In India, and I believe even in globally to make hydrogen a viable alternative, it is all about technical feasibility," said Prasad K. Panicker, Director, Nayara Refinery. 

Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Government of India said that India is bullish about the hydrogen potential and self-sufficiency. 

“The Indian government is strongly supporting the cause of renewable energy to fulfil its commitment of net zero by 2070. The emphasis has been on reducing carbon footprint, reducing energy imports and focusing on green energy alternatives. We have set a target of 500 gigabytes of renewable power by 2030. We have decided to pursue national energy self-sufficiency and green hydrogen is doing it for the future. The large industrial houses have already started investing and establishing manufacturing facilities for green hydrogen. The priorities of cement and steel industries, refineries, fertilizer, and transport is to bring down the cost of hydrogen to less than US$ 1 through the development of low cost electrolyzers, integration of renewable energy, and adoption of green technologies. India must take the leap forward in the production of biofuels with clarity. Green hydrogen provides us with a unique opportunity to scale and export capabilities in higher value green products such as green steam and green ammonia,” said Gadkari.