NITI Aayog has proposed setting up of Green Hydrogen Corridors in the country while providing grants to startups as well as support to entrepreneurs to promote production, storage and export of green hydrogen in India.
In a report titled ‘Harnessing Green Hydrogen - Opportunities for Deep Decarbonisation in India’ released on Wednesday, the Aayog also suggested that there is a need to facilitate investment through demand aggregation and dollar-based bidding for green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen or green ammonia is defined as hydrogen or ammonia produced by way of electrolysis of water using renewable energy and the hydrogen or ammonia produced from biomass. Most large economies including India have committed to net zero targets and the Aayog feels green hydrogen will play a significant role in helping India achieve its decarbonisation targets.
“Three hydrogen corridors should be developed across the country based on state grand challenges,” the Aayog said in the report jointly developed by the Rocky Mountain Institute.
“The governments can provide grants and loans to startups and projects, support entrepreneurs through incubators and investor networks and put in place regulations that manage first-mover risks,” it added.
“Green hydrogen can help India significantly reduce its import dependence on imported fuel and hence inter-ministerial interventions are required to promote the production and the usage of green hydrogen,” Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog said.
The report has suggested that the government use public procurement and purchase incentives (for green hydrogen) to create demand in niche markets and crowd in private investment while promoting export of green hydrogen and green hydrogen-embedded products through a global hydrogen alliance.
The report forecasts that hydrogen demand in India could grow more than fourfold by 2050, representing almost 10% of the global hydrogen demand with steel and heavy-duty trucks likely to account for 52%
Emphasising that the roadmap for green hydrogen should also identify a timeline and scale of manufacturing support for electrolysers, the report said India may aim for 25 GW of electrolysers by 2030, while also investing $1 billion in research and development to catalyse the development of commercial green hydrogen technologies across the value chain.
