'India plans to become global leader in green hydrogen'

New Delhi: India plans to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen and the country is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining, Power Minister R K Singh has told the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry.

In a telephonic conversation last evening, Singh also informed Kerry that India will invite bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to encourage viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel, according to a power ministry statement.

India is looking at bids for 4,000 MW of electrolysers capacity, it stated. As per the statement, Kerry has congratulated India on achievements in renewable energy on reaching 146GW Renewables with 63 GW under construction and 25 GW under bids.

"Union Minister R K Singh has informed Mr Kerry about India's plan to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen. India is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining. This is part of the government's commitment towards replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen," the statement said.

Singh underlined to the US Presidential envoy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi places the highest importance on the environment.

He suggested to him that India and the USA could work together in the areas of innovations for power and technology, pointing out the requirement of bringing down the cost of storage of renewable power.

The minister informed Kerry about the recent milestone the country had achieved by crossing 100 GW in Installed solar and wind capacity.

"If we add Hydro capacity also, the total installed renewable capacity is 147 MW. Further, 63 GW of renewable capacity is under construction which makes India one of the fastest growing in terms of renewable capacity addition," it stated.

Singh also informed Kerry that the National Hydrogen Energy Mission has been launched to enable cost competitive green hydrogen production. He added that India would be conducting competitive bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to pave the road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel.

The other countries need to come up with more electrolyser plants to bring down the costs.

It was suggested that India and the USA should work at setting up an alternate supply chain for lithium in order to secure input material for battery energy storage.

Moreover, in a bid to promote electric vehicles in the country, Power Minister R K Singh has urged all union ministers and chief ministers to switch over to electric vehicles for all official

purposes.

According to a power ministry statement, Singh has shot off letters to his union cabinet colleagues as well as all chief ministers in this regard.

The Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy has written to all the Union Ministers including the Minister of States (Independent Charge) and Chief Ministers of all the States/UTs to join the government's initiative on transformative mobility, as per the

statement.

The minister has also asked the union ministers and chief ministers to advise their respective ministries/departments to convert their fleet of official vehicles from present Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)/Petrol/Diesel Vehicles to Electric Vehicles for all official purposes, it said.

Such an action is expected to set an example for the general public and encourage them to switch over to E-Mobility, it added.

The initiative is part of ongoing "GO ELECTRIC CAMPAIGN" launched by the government to promote Electric Vehicles to meet multiple objectives - attaining the goal of reduction in emission, energy security, energy

efficiency etc.