Mumbai

Green hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition and it can reduce over $ 160 billion worth of import for India, said Dr R A Mashelkar, the leading scientist and innovation evangelist, at the recently held Digielec Bharat 2021 - organised by IEEMA. He added that countries like USA, Australia, India and Japan have decided to cooperate development for clean hydrogen value chain.

Sharing his vision on green hydrogen driven green revolution in India, he said, “There has been an exponential growth in hydrogen deployment globally. Green hydrogen has moved from hype to hope and there are 359 large scale H2 projects announced and estimated investment worth $ 510 billion by 2030. Over 75 countries have net zero carbon ambition and 31 countries have already implemented the strategies. I believe policies should be made considering the carbon impact, complexity of hydrogen infrastructure investment and future changes to carbon pricing or import taxes, once subsidies are phased out to ensure competitiveness to existing conventional fuel.”

He cited steps required going forward and mentioned, “Graded market development for hydrogen will encourage private sector investment through competitive bidding. Also, a framework for incentives and alignment with Make in India and Aatmnirbhar Bharat need to be developed with specific zones (H2 Hub) and grid balancing. Technology should be supported by Bold Policy decisions, patient capital and public-private partnerships.”

Vipul Ray, President, IEEMA, said, “Digielec Bharat is a culmination of Digitization, Standardization & Indianisation, taking forward the clarion call of Hon’ble Prime Minister on AatmNirbharBharat. Going Forward Hydrogen will play a very critical role in shaping the power sector globally.”