4-Jul-2022: Shri Hardeep S. Puri chairs the meeting with stakeholders on Green Hydrogen

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today held consultations with stakeholders on Green Hydrogen. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Hardeep S. Puri. It was attended by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Rameswar Teli, Secretary, MOPNG, Senior Officers of the Ministry and Oil & Gas PSUs, and other stakeholders.

Shri Puri said that when allowed to flourish, Green Hydrogen will overcome the challenges that were faced by the fossil fuel industry. He said that it will provide momentum to India’s journey towards energy independence by 2047. “We are spending Rs. 12 lakh crores to import the energy. So, we have to push the green hydrogen as an alternative source of energy. India has a huge edge in green hydrogen production, owing to its favourable geographic conditions and presence of abundant natural elements.”

Describing the hydrogen as the fuel of the future, Shri Puri emphasized on accelerated timeframe for the sector. He said that the oil and gas PSUs have taken a number of pilot projects in the sector, some of which will start showing results this year itself. The Minister said that India, being the large growing economy, is going to be the hub of Green Hydrogen.

The stakeholders deliberated upon ways to develop the entire green hydrogen ecosystem in a way that India is able to realise country’s full potential to create a $12-13 trillion industry by 2050 & transform into a dominant global energy supplier. Various ideas & opportunities were discussed with industry leaders. The participants enumerated the initiatives being taken by them in the sector. Some of them also highlighted the issues, needing to be addressed.

29-Jun-2022: Green Hydrogen Is Critical to India’s Economic Development and Net-Zero Ambitions: Report

A new report released today by NITI Aayog highlights that green hydrogen can substantially spur industrial decarbonisation and economic growth for India in the coming decades. The report was launched by Shri Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog  and  Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog. Harnessing Green Hydrogen: Opportunities for Deep Decarbonisation in India provides a pathway to accelerate the emergence of a green hydrogen economy, which is critical for India to achieve its net-zero ambitions by 2070.

The report, co-authored by NITI Aayog and RMI, underscores that green hydrogen—produced by renewable energy through electrolysis of water—will be crucial for achieving decarbonisation of harder-to-abate sectors such as, fertilisers, refining, methanol, maritime shipping, iron & steel and transport. It further states that with emerging global momentum on hydrogen, India can situate this decarbonisation opportunity not just within the context of a low-carbon economy but also as an enabler of energy security and economic development for the nation.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said,” An important message of the report was that green hydrogen can potentially provide a replacement of fossil fuels in industrial processes.” He added, “ The next steps at the policy level could involve arriving at the correct mix between mandates/regulations and price instruments.”

Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog, made a brief presentation on the report. He said that the report was an outcome of detailed study spread over a year.  He highlighted the importance of green hydrogen from the point of view of energy security and the need to achieve size and scale to push down costs of green hydrogen. He remarked that, given the right policies, India can emerge as the least cost producer and bring down the price of green hydrogen to US$ 1 per kg by 2030.

While hydrogen can be produced from multiple sources, India’s distinct advantage in low-cost renewable electricity means that green hydrogen will emerge as the most cost-effective form. The report concludes that hydrogen demand in India could grow more than fourfold by 2050, representing almost 10% of global demand. Given that the majority of this demand could be met with green hydrogen in the long term, the cumulative value of the green hydrogen market in India could reach US $8 billion by 2030.

Highlighting the opportunity, Clay Stranger, RMI Managing Director, said that there is significant global interest in green hydrogen and countries are in the first stages of formulating a strategy and this will ultimately decide the winners and losers of the hydrogen economy. The report can become a reference for policy making in India.

The report describes pathways that can capture the benefits of green hydrogen

• Near-term policy measures can bring down the current costs of green hydrogen to make it competitive with the existing grey hydrogen (hydrogen produced by natural gas) prices. Medium-term price targets should be set to guide the industry towards making green hydrogen the most competitive form of hydrogen.
• Government can encourage near term market development by identifying industrial clusters and enacting associated viability gap funding, mandates and targets.
• Opportunities around research and development and manufacturing of components like electrolysers need to be identified and appropriately encouraged with adequate financial mechanisms such as production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to enable 25 GW of manufacturing capacity of electrolysers by 2028.
• A globally competitive green hydrogen industry can lead to exports in green hydrogen and hydrogen-embedded low-carbon products like green ammonia and green steel that can unlock 95 GW of electrolysis capacity in the nation by 2030.

NITI Aayog’s partner for this report, RMI, works for the transformation of  global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. It works in the world’s most critical geographies and engages businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale up energy system interventions that will cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030. Partner institutions play a critical role in creating a knowledge ecosystem for NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog engages with partners to jointly work on key policy issues and leverages expertise in respective areas.

20-Apr-2022: India’s first pure green hydrogen plant commissioned in Jorhat

Oil India Limited (OIL) has taken the first significant step towards Green Hydrogen Economy in India with the commissioning of India’s First 99.999% pure Green Hydrogen pilot plant, with an installed capacity of 10 kg per day at its Jorhat Pump Station in Assam today. The plant was commissioned in a record time of 3 months.

Shri Sushil Chandra Mishra, Chairman & Managing Director, inaugurated the plant in the presence of Shri Harish Madhav, Director (Finance) and Shri Prasanta Borkakoty, Resident Chief Executive of the company. The plant produces Green Hydrogen from the electricity generated by the existing 500kW Solar plant using a 100 kW Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) Electrolyser array. The use of AEM technology is being used for the first time in India.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Mishra said that the company has taken an important step towards fulfilling the vision of our Prime Minister for an AtmaNirbhar India. This plant is expected to increase its production of green hydrogen from 10 kg per day to 30 kg per day in future. The company has initiated a detailed study in collaboration with IIT Guwahati on blending of Green Hydrogen with Natural Gas and its effect on the existing infrastructure of OIL. The company also plans to study use cases for commercial applications of the blended fuel.

1-Jul-2022: India’s largest floating solar power project commissioned

Indi’s largest floating Solar Power Project is now fully operational. NTPC declared Commercial Operation of the final part capacity of 20 MW out of 100 MW Ramagundam Floating Solar PV Project at Ramagundam, Telangana with effect from 00:00 hours of July 01, 2022.

With the operationalisation of 100-MW Solar PV Project at Ramagundam, total commercial operation of Floating Solar Capacity in Southern Region rose to 217 MW. Earlier, NTPC declared Commercial operation of 92 MW Floating Solar at Kayamkulam (Kerala) and 25 MW Floating Solar at Simhadri (Andhra Pradesh), Shri Anand added.

The 100-MW Floating Solar project at Ramagundam is endowed with advanced technology as well as environment friendly features. Constructed with financial implication of Rs. 423 crores through M/s BHEL as EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract, the project spreads over 500 acres of its reservoir. Divided into 40 blocks, each having 2.5 MW.  Each block consists of one floating platform and an array of 11,200 solar modules. The floating platform consists of one Inverter, Transformer, and a HT breaker. The solar modules are placed on floaters manufactured with HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) material.

The entire floating system is being anchored through special HMPE (High Modulus Polyethylene) rope to the dead weights placed in the balancing reservoir bed. The power is being evacuated up to the existing switch yard through 33KV underground cables.  This project is unique in the sense that all the electrical equipment including inverter, transformer, HT panel and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) are also on floating ferro cement platforms. The anchoring of this system is bottom anchoring through dead weight concrete blocks.

From environment point of view, the most obvious advantage is minimum land requirement mostly for associated evacuation arrangements. Further, with the presence of floating solar panels, the evaporation rate from water bodies is reduced, thus helping in water conservation. Approximately 32.5 lakh cubic meters per year water evaporation can be avoided. The water body underneath the solar modules helps in maintaining their ambient temperature, thereby improving their efficiency and generation. Similarly, while coal consumption of 1,65,000 Tons can be avoided per year; Co2 emission of 2,10,000 tons per year can be avoided.

3-Dec-2018: 50MW floating solar plant in the country’s largest reservoir Rihand dam, UP

Floating solar panels set up on a structure that floats on a water body has long been viewed as an advantage over ground mounted solar plants owing to its cooling effect and unavailability of land. Shapoorji Pallonji won a bid to develop a 50MW floating solar plant in the country’s largest reservoir Rihand dam in Sonbhadra district, UP.

The firm won the bid last week at a tariff of Rs 3.29/kWh. With the auction tariffs capped at Rs 3.32 per unit, it was broadly aligned to the tariffs that have been bid for the projects on land in Uttar Pradesh.

Floating solar makes intuitive sense in geographies with high land costs and poor availability. For instance, the water surface leasing component in this auction amounts to 5 paise per kWh generated, to be paid directly to Uttar Pradesh Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (UPJVNL), the dam’s operator.

The auction comes with no additional subsidies and allowances and with all capital expenses expected to be borne by the developers in full. Environmental clearances are, however, exempt. The power is to be purchased directly by the state Discom through an escrow.

The fact that floating solar can play a more significant role became apparent when Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) issued an Expression of Interest last year to develop 10-GW solar power plants across the country. However, the UP auctions are the first definitive marker for a dramatic shift in scale. The largest floating solar plant to date is a 2MW one in Vishakhapatnam. Another is a 500-kWh plant built by the Kerala State Electricity Board at the Banasura Sagar Dam.

The global floating solar market is driven by Asian countries, with China and Japan being home to bulk of the existing operational capacity of 259 MW.

In India, floating solar is likely to face challenges scaling up to the level of ground-mounted plants. For one, it is clearly more expensive. The tariff for large scale solar around the country is well under Rs 3 per kWh. The higher tariffs in UP is partly due to higher land costs – there isn’t a lot of waste land available for the taking in the highly fertile, populated state.

The premise of floating solar—the lack of land related expenses—is not that simple. The floating platforms, on which the plants are mounted on the water surface, and anchoring to keep the plant fixed over the fluid, is estimated to be more than 20 per cent of the total plant CAPEX. This is when the land costs for large scale solar plants in the country averages under 7 per cent.

It is also unclear if there is an indigenous manufacturing base for the floatation devices. In an interview to a publication in July 2018, Anmol Jaggi, director at Gencol, pointed out that floating devices were difficult to transport incurring costs that are five times that of the solar panels. While NTPC did develop its own floatation device for its 100kW plant in Kerala, it is unclear if domestic R&D efforts can quickly expand to deliver the envisioned 10 GW.

That being said, floating solar is a definite reprieve for states that are a significant market for more renewable energy but with little land to spare, as is the case with Uttar Pradesh.