Opinion National Green Hydrogen Mission: Catching the bus

As countries work on reducing their dependence on fossil fuels due to climate change considerations, a race is currently on to secure the energy sources of the future — that are as cheap, reliable, accessible and easy to handle as coal, petrol or natural gas, but that are also clean. Solar and wind energy have almost been tamed, but their intermittency and seasonality continue to be a challenge. Nuclear energy has been in use for several decades now, but its cost remains a constraint. And even though electric vehicles are fast gaining in popularity, the convenience of petrol or diesel is still missing. The government approval to the National Green Hydrogen Mission on Wednesday, a keenly-awaited decision, therefore, hasn’t come a day too soon. The nearly Rs 20,000 crore mission is aimed at building domestic capabilities in developing technologies to produce hydrogen, an element that is readily available in nature but never alone, because of which it requires segregation.

Green hydrogen, produced through a clean process, is rightly seen as the most dependable source of energy of the future. It can be used to generate electricity or as fuel in industries or vehicles. Even though the technology to produce hydrogen in an emission-free manner is not yet mature or cost-effective, it features prominently in several countries’ strategies to achieve net-zero emission status by the middle of this century. Efforts to harness the energy of hydrogen in a clean and affordable manner have been stepped up significantly in the last few years. In many ways, green hydrogen is where solar energy was 10-12 years ago. The technology to harness the energy was available, but wasn’t economical. Then, dramatically, in a period of less than five years, a combination of technology improvement and massive demand in countries like China saw the prices of solar photovoltaic cells come down by 80-90 per cent, suddenly making solar energy an extremely attractive proposition. India joined the solar revolution a little late, after the prices had come down. And while India is now one of the biggest players in solar energy, most of the raw materials and components are imported. There are already concerns that inability to develop domestic capabilities in solar manufacturing will only result in India moving from one kind of dependency — oil imports — to another.

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With the hydrogen mission, India is making a relatively early entry into a still nascent technology domain. It is reassuring to see that the bulk of the financial allocation for the mission is geared towards developing domestic manufacturing of electrolysers, the equipment in which hydrogen is separated from water molecules, and the production of hydrogen. A substantial part of the money has been earmarked for R&D activities with the aim of developing globally competitive technologies. It is important not to miss the bus this time. For now, the government seems to be moving in the right direction.