Energetica India Magazine March 2022

11 energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 HYDROGEN IH2A-NITI Aayog Suggests Ways for Large Scale Commercial- ization of Green Hydrogen in India With an aim for speedy large-scale com- mercialization of green hydrogen with- in the country, Reliance, JSW Steel and Chart Industries led India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) has proposed a plan to the policy think tank NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Under the plan, IH2A, industry-led co- alition of global and Indian companies, has suggested the creation of a ‘Pub- lic-Private H2Bharat Taskforce’, which would identify and develop at least 5 large GW-scale green hydrogen hubs in India, within the next 18-months. The proposal was the result of the second workshop conducted by NITI Aayog and IH2A, to build the hydro- gen economy in India, and part of a set of seven points that were deliberated during the workshop. Welcoming the proposal, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive of NITI Aayog, said, “our aim is to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $2.5/kg by 2025 and $1/kg by 2030. This is possible only by increasing the size and scale of hy- drogen manufacturing. With rapidly falling renewable energy costs, India’s green hydrogen production cost is ex- pected to be amongst the lowest in the world. The H2Bharat Taskforce is an interesting proposal to kick-start green hydrogen project development at a large GW-scale. We welcome this voluntary initiative from the industry and look forward to collaborating on it.” Explaining the working of the proposed Taskforce, Jill Evanko, Chief Execu- tive and President, Chart Industries, and founding member, IH2A, said, “the H2Bharat Taskforce will identify and shortlist five GW-scale national green hydrogen hubs for development in the next 12 months. It would bring togeth- er all relevant stakeholders from the government, funding agencies and the industry. IH2A will be happy to extend resources for this initiative voluntarily and work together with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renew- able Energy (MNRE) for it.” The workshop was attended by repre- sentatives from the European Invest- ment Bank (EIB), World Bank, OECD, GIZ, CDC and FMO; Government of India, Government of Kerala and in- dustry players from across the hydrogen value chain. The seven recommended steps from the NITI Aayog-IH2A workshop include: 1). India should replicate the global best-practice of GW-scale Green H2 hubs with co-located Green H2 produc- tion and consumption, across different use cases, in a single regional cluster or hub, to commercialize Green hydrogen. 2). The first Green H2 hubs should be designated national projects or ‘Special Projects of National Importance’ and be supported with special incentives and public funding. 3). Formation of public-private consor- tiums for the development of national green hydrogen hubs and project clus- ters is very important, to pool public and private resources and for de-risking early project development. 4). Sovereign green bonds and global climate finance commitments can pro - vide the necessary funding for GW-scale Green Hydrogen hubs in India. Multi- lateral and government agencies can play a catalyzing role in early market development by part-funding design and pre-feasibility studies for the na- tional hubs. 5). India needs a pipeline of national hydrogen hubs that can be evaluated before public and low-cost funding can be extended to them. Funding agencies are keen to see the synergies across the green hydrogen value-chain in project plans rather than standalone green hy- drogen projects. 6). Pre-feasibility studies for the first set of GW-scale green hydrogen hubs should start immediately with at least five national green hydrogen hubs iden - tified in the next 18 months. 7). Formation of a public-private H2Bharat commercialization taskforce, with a focus on green H2 hub or cluster development, with the target to conduct pre-feasibility studies for the first five GW green H2 clusters/hubs in India in the next 12 months. Earlier, the industry body has estimat- ed that India would need investments of about USD 25 billion, from public and private sectors, to create a domes- tic green hydrogen supply chain with a national installed electrolyzer capacity of 25 GW producing 5 MT of Green Hy- drogen by 2030.