India calls for common global standards for green hydrogen

New Delhi: India pitched for common international standards for green hydrogen at the BRICS Green Hydrogen Summit, to ensure safe transportation and storage of the new age emission-free fuel.

India had organised the two-day summit on green hydrogen involving Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, also referred to as the BRICS nations, on their initiatives around the green fuel. The summit started on 22 June and was organised by state-run NTPC Ltd.

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.

“Shri Alok Kumar, Secretary Ministry of Power, in his keynote address said that Government and industry must work together to ensure existing regulations are not an unnecessary barrier to investment. Trade will benefit from common international standards for the safety of transporting and storing large volumes of hydrogen and having appropriate certificate of origin. BRICS countries could work together on these aspects,” the union power ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Leveraging India’s landmass and green energy sources for exporting green hydrogen is one of the steps for achieving energy sufficiency for the country, according to a draft proposal circulated by the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), for the planned National Hydrogen Energy Mission as reported by Mint earlier.

“The online event saw leading experts from the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) countries who shared their insights and professional views on the subject as well as the latest developments going on in their countries in the area of green hydrogen,” the statement added.

Global hydrogen initiatives have been gaining traction. A recent case in point being US-India hydrogen taskforce that was launched under the aegis of US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership. India also plans to extend the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturing electrolyzers, which are used for producing green hydrogen.

India produces around 50 lakh tonnes of hydrogen annually and it's expected that the country may see a green hydrogen demand of 16,000 tonne per annum by 2024 and 1 million tonne by 2030.