The Inauguration Edition of Hydrogen Roundtable titled ‘The Hydrogen Economy-New Delhi Dialogue 2021’ took place virtually on 15th April, 2021. The Hydrogen Roundtable is the first of its kind conference on Hydrogen Ecosystem.
- Organizers – The Energy Forum (TEF), an Independent Think-Tank and the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI) under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Government of India.
- Purpose – To discuss emerging hydrogen ecosystems and explore opportunities for collaboration, cooperation and coalition.
- The high-level Ministerial Session of the conference was led by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of MoPNG.
- Around 25 panelists from 15 countries such as UAE, Denmark, US took part in the conference.
Note – India’s petroleum sector is the largest producer of hydrogen for various refinery process operations & India is the world’s third-largest oil importer.
Major Events
India to spend USD 200 Million on Hydrogen
- India is set to spend USD 200 Million over the next 5-7 years for promoting the use of Hydrogen in India. It has requested State-run Oil and Gas companies to set up 7 Hydrogen Pilot Plants by the end of 2021.
US, India to launch Hydrogen Task Force
During the Roundtable, US Deputy Secretary of Energy, David M Turk announced that India and the US will launch a Hydrogen Task Force under the US-India Strategy Energy Partnership.
- The Task Force will help in scaling up technologies to produce hydrogen from renewable energy and fossil fuel sources.
- It will also help in bringing down the cost of deployment for enhanced energy security and resiliency.
Note – United States is committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
India H2 Alliance (IH2A)
Reliance Industries and many other global energy and industrial firms have come together to form a new energy transition coalition called the ‘India H2 Alliance (IH2A)’. It will work towards commercialising hydrogen technologies to build net-zero carbon energy pathways in India.
i.The alliance is set to work on 5 areas
- Develop a national hydrogen policy and roadmap 2021-30
- Create a national H2 taskforce and mission in a public-private partnership format
- To identify nationally large H2 demonstration-stage projects
- Help in creating National India H2 fund
- Creating hydrogen-linked capacity covering hydrogen production, storage and distribution, industrial use-cases, transport use-cases and standards.
National Hydrogen Mission (NHM)
During the Union Budget 2021-22, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM) for generating hydrogen from green power sources.
- The main purpose of NHEM is to draw up a road map for using hydrogen as an energy source.
- An amount of INR 1500 Crore was set aside to achieve India’s target of 175 GW by 2022 & also for NHEM.
- NHEM aims to transform India into a global hub for manufacturing of hydrogen and fuel cells technologies.
Hydrogen Fuel
- It is a zero-emission fuel which can be produced from a variety of domestic resources like natural gas, biomass and renewable power like solar and wind.
- It can be used as fuel for transportation and electricity generation applications.
- Hydrogen Fuel can help in reducing India’s import dependency on fossil fuels.
What is Green Hydrogen?
Green hydrogen gas is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolyzer, that may be powered by electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
India’s Stats:
In the past six years, India has increased its renewable power portfolio from 32 GW to almost 100 GW. Target -To achieve 450 GW of renewable energy generating capacity by 2030.
Recent Related News:
i.On February 18, 2021, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) addressed the Joint Conference of the 11th World PetroCoal Congress 2021 and World Future Fuel Summit 2021 in New Delhi.
About The Energy Forum (TEF)
Chairman – Dr. Anil Kakodkar
Location – New Delhi
About Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI)
Director General – Dr R K Malhotra
Location – New Delhi
