He, however, adds that power generation using green hydrogen is expected to take a longer time to establish in IndiaNew Delhi: In an exclusive interview withETEnergyWorld,Rajiv Menon, country manager and managing director – India, Black & Veatch, a US-based construction and consulting firm, said that he sees India becoming a world leader ingreen hydrogenproduction. He, however, adds that power generation using green hydrogen is expected to take a longer time to establish in India.
Black & Veatch was recently selected by Mitsubishi Power Americas and Magnum Development, as the EPC provider for the world’s largest industrial green hydrogen production and storage facility in the US which will convert over 220 MW of renewable energy daily to 100 metric tons of green hydrogen and will, incrementally, expand to using 100 per cent hydrogen by 2045. Edited excerpts:
What is your take on India’s nascent green hydrogen market? What role can green hydrogen play in India’s energy transition goals?
We are enthusiastic supporters of India’s target to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum by 2030.
India imports the majority of its energy sources, including gas and oil, and heavily subsidises them for domestic use. Domestic hydrogen will help provide much-needed independence and diversity in India’s energy resources and support the decarbonisation of both the power and mobility sectors. This is particularly encouraging as solar and wind energy development will support the renewable power requirement for green hydrogen generation in India.
There is also potential for hydrogen to contribute to India’s energy storage requirements as the country increases its renewable energy generation, which remains subject to variability concerns. Hydrogen energy storage systems can both complement and serve as a reliable alternative to batteries to address variable renewable energy generation. Hydrogen surpasses the physical limitations of current mineral-based battery technologies to provide essentially infinite duration storage.
Power generation using green hydrogen is expected to take a longer time to establish in India. Nuclear power is expected to be the transition step as India moves down the carbon emission ladder.
Where will India stand in the global market in the coming years?
India is well-positioned to be a global leader in green hydrogen production in the coming years. We foresee India becoming a net exporter of green hydrogen and/or green ammonia, as well as an exporter of electrolysers in the global supply chain. In the next five years, several gigawatts of electrolyser manufacturing capacity is expected to be operational in India, and this capacity will contribute to the global supply chain.
How much green hydrogen capacity and investment should India target to help reach its transition goals? Can you share some approximate figures and timelines with us?
Electrolyser technology has been available for many years, but new technologies are still maturing and their interactions with renewable energy are still being explored so it will be difficult to predict at this point the amount of green hydrogen capacity and investment India will need to target to reach its transition goals.
Additionally, the dynamics in the Indian scenario depends heavily on its energy imports and price fluctuations.
That said, one approach that could help derive a potential investment requirement is to review different national targets. For instance, it is expected that gradually the mobility sector in India will split between electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles, both catering to the different mobility sections, light motor vehicles and heavy transport vehicles. Extrapolating the rate of current EV penetration to a hydrogen-based mobility sector in 10 years may assist in deriving an estimated investment target.
What is the estimated valuation of India’s green hydrogen market at present and how much is it expected to increase in the next decade?
Industry experts value the current green hydrogen market in India at $25 million on the basis of 5 per cent market penetration in the automobile sector, which is expected to expand exponentially in the next 10 years. Other sectors such as steel, power and petroleum industries are expected to progress towards green hydrogen, but the pace of development will likely be driven by technology advancement in their core processes.
With big players entering the market, do you think this will have an impact on the green hydrogen production costs? What more needs to be done for this?
The cost of green hydrogen production will mainly be driven by the cost of renewable power, water, and electrolysers. In-country manufacturing of solar panels and electrolysers will help reduce the capital expenditure on green hydrogen plants as well as the renewable power cost.
As current technologies for electrolysers consume high levels of energy, further development in electrolyser technologies will be a main driver for bringing down the green hydrogen production cost. Industry players addressing these issues will likely impact green hydrogen production costs.
Another step India could take is to draw on the benefits of digitalization. Integrating Operational Technology and Information Technology is one approach to improve the reliability and efficiency, and resilience of India’s process industry. Merging data analytics with engineering expertise can help to deliver timely and actionable insights that optimise the full potential of the industry’s assets and facilities, and help the industry transition effectively to lower carbon operations.
