Govt Developing Policy for Green Hydrogen

In furtherance of the Government’s thrust towards promoting increased adoption of renewable energy and use of green hydrogen as envisaged in the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is working on the modalities for promoting the use of green hydrogen in supporting round-the-clock electricity.

The Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy Shri R. K. Singh chaired a meeting in New Delhi on February 6, 2024, regarding the use of Green Hydrogen in conjunction with other modes such as solar energy and wind energy, for round-the-clock renewable energy. Officials from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Power, NTPC, Central Electricity Commission and Solar Energy Corporation of India attended the meeting.

Green Hydrogen as a Storage Medium

The officials had detailed discussions on the various potential options for using Green Hydrogen as a storage medium for supporting round-the-clock power and peak power demand. The meeting also discussed various mechanisms of providing Government support for such projects. The policy mechanisms being considered include one based on the Contract for Difference (CfD) methodology, which is based on the difference between the market price and an agreed “strike price”.

The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy gave directions to the officials to draft the scheme guidelines, based on the economics, technologies and current and future market conditions of the green hydrogen and power sector. The Minister underlined the growing power demand and the importance of round-the-clock renewable energy in reducing the cost of renewable energy and making it affordable. Union Minister RK Singh stated that the learnings from the first such project will be used to undertake bigger projects in the future.