New Delhi Set To Host Global Meet On Green Hydrogen Next Week

Apart from solar energy, India is also taking lead in the world in the field of new and renewable energy sources sector, and green hydrogen is certainly one of them. In that series, India is going to organise a three-day International Conference on Green Hydrogen (ICGH-2023) beginning 5th July 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi to bring together the global scientific and industrial community to discuss recent advances and emerging technologies in the entire green hydrogen value chain.

The conference will enable the sector stakeholders to explore the evolving green hydrogen landscape and innovation-driven solutions in the sector. Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will be the main organiser of the meet in partnership with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India.

The fundamental aim of the conference is to explore how we can establish a green hydrogen ecosystem and foster a systemic approach for meeting the global goals for decarbonization through green hydrogen. Apart from domain-specific research interactions on hydrogen production, storage, distribution and downstream applications, the conference will also discuss green financing, human resource upskilling and startup initiatives in this area. The conference will enable to share and learn from international best practices in the sector.

Various feature plenary talks, expert panel discussions and technical deliberations held at the conference will provide domestic and international participants from the industry and research communities to dive deep into these national and global priorities, in line with the objectives embedded in India's National Green Hydrogen Mission, a mission launched by the Government of India to help achieve India's target of Net Zero by the year 2070.

Addressing a curtain-raiser press conference on the international conference, Secretary of New and Renewable Energy Bhupinder Singh Bhalla said that outreach and industry partnership are integral parts of the National Green Hydrogen Mission. He underlined the role of industry in various steps of the value chain, such as production, distribution and storage.

Responding to a query, Bhalla said that at last count, about 48 projects on green hydrogen/green ammonia have been publicly announced in India. "A lot of them are talking about green ammonia, which totals to production of around 3.5 million tonnes per annum of green hydrogen. There is a lot of traction from the industry, as far as green hydrogen opportunity is concerned," he added.

"The conference will also guide us in determining the focus areas for R&D and on the standards and regulations needed," he said, informing that a Working Group on Standards for Green Hydrogen Manufacturing has already submitted a report comprising around 100 recommendations, to Bureau of Indian Standards and other standards-related organizations.

Shri Bhalla said that the government is working on a definition for green hydrogen and expressed the hope that the conference helps to also evolve some global standards for green hydrogen. He added that there is no standard definition for green hydrogen, with different countries and private organizations coming up with multiple definitions.

"It is an evolving field, so every country is learning, so India is going to come up with a definition based on what we believe should be green hydrogen and eventually, we should be having a global standard on the definition of green hydrogen. This should have clear starting and ending points, so that we can effectively evaluate our energy transition and adoption of green hydrogen," he said.

The three-day conference will have around 25 sessions aimed at establishing a green hydrogen ecosystem, with expected participation of more than 1,500 delegates from India and abroad. Delegates will also get to hear regional perspectives on green hydrogen by the Americas, Australia, Africa, Europe and, of course, India. The conference will also have demos, prototypes by PSUs, private companies and startups, as well as B2B and B2G meetings.

Speaking on demand creation, the Secretary said that the government is working with respective Ministries to promote green hydrogen. "The Ministry is also working on provision of incentives for electrolyzer manufacturing and for production of green hydrogen. As regards production of green hydrogen, incentives will be awarded based on setting up of green hydrogen plants; in a second model, incentives will be provided for consumption, based on a Demand Aggregation Model."

The draft of the incentive scheme for electrolyzer manufacturing and part of the incentive scheme for production of green hydrogen have been finalized and will be rolled out soon. He said that the total incentives being offered under the Mission is more than Rs 17,000 crore by 2030, which will be rolled out in tranches, so that the government will learn from the first tranche and evolve the second one.

On the question of funding for green hydrogen, the Secretary recalled that there is a need for Rs 8 lakh-crore of investment under National Green Hydrogen Mission and said that the government is talking with banking and financial system, private sector and other stakeholders for financing of green hydrogen. He said that the government would be handholding industry in order to attract funding for the sector.