Reliance Industries seeks new technologies to make cheaper green hydrogen
As part of the push, Reliance Industries also plans to bid for any production-linked incentives the government may offer to encourage the technology
Reliance Industries Ltd., controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is assessing new technologies for making electrolyzers in its efforts to produce low-cost green hydrogen in the country.
As part of the push, the company also plans to bid for any production-linked incentives the government may offer to encourage the technology, Kapil Maheshwari, president for new energy at Reliance, said at the BloombergNEF summit in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unveiled the first phase of its green hydrogen policy in February, offering a range of incentives for companies to set up projects. India is considering offering more “sweeteners” for producers, Power and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh said last week.
Green hydrogen has drawn tens of billions of dollars in investment commitments from investors, including Ambani and rival tycoon Gautam Adani. The fuel, produced by splitting water with the help of clean energy like wind power, is seen as critical to decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries such as oil refineries and steel mills, helping meet global targets to zero out emissions and fight global warming.
Maheshwari said India needs to provide certainty about policies and help build a market for green hydrogen by requiring some industries to purchase the fuel, a step the government is already discussing.
Reliance will pursue an aggressive target to produce green hydrogen at $1 per kilogram by the end of this decade, Ambani said last year. At the time, the cost of producing the fuel was between $2.22 and $4.62 a kilogram in India.
Ambani and Adani have pledged more than $140 billion in green investments, as their fossil fuel-driven empires pivot away from oil and coal. Green hydrogen is central to this shift, as the two tycoons champion the government’s ambition to make India a global leader for production and exports of this fuel.
India's first Hydrogen Policy has the potential to morph India into a green hydrogen export hub from being an energy importer, believe analysts, as the policy would not only make merchant green hydrogen highly viable, but also potentially make India the cheapest producer globally.
RIL has already spent $1.4 billion to acquire technologies across the solar battery and hydrogen ecosystems
After years of dabbling, major oil companies are finally planning the kind of large-scale investments that would make green hydrogen a serious business.
'Green Hydrogen' policy is expected to support the Renewable Energy (RE) capacity addition targets of the country.
At present, 'Green Hydrogen' is produced through electrolysis of water using renewable energ
On the other hand, 'Gray Hydrogen' which is the most commonly used is derived from fossil fuels.
The 'Green Hydrogen' segment is becoming popular globally but cost of producing this gas remains high.
Currently, fertiliser and oil gas sectors use hydrogen, however, due to flexible uses and low emissions the gas is being touted as the ultimate solution for clean energy needs of long distance transportation and electricity generation.
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