India needs Hydrogen partnership with Japan for clean energy goal, says envoy

NEW DELHI, Apr 20: India should have a strategic partnership with Japan on Hydrozen that would help the country in its plan to have clean and green energy, says Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India to Japan.

Thirty-eight per cent of India’s total installed electricity generation is based on renewables. This is about 136 GW now, and it is expected to reach a target of 175 GW by next year and 450 GW by 2030. Therefore, Verma says, hydrogen can play a critical role as a clean fuel in achieving this ambitious goal.

“Japan is the first country to formulate a basic hydrogen strategy. Hydrogen is included in the fifth Energy plan of Japan. The country thus has a good ecosystem for R&D and commercialization, which could be used by the Scientific and Commercial Communities of the two countries,” said Ambassador Verma.

He was speaking at a India-Japan webinar in which experts discussed the most recent innovations, trends, concerns, and solutions adopted in the field of decarbonisation and promotion of Hydrogen based technologies.

“India and Japan have strategic relationships, and this has to be elevated to a strategic partnership enabling sharing of knowledge without any inhibition on Hydrogen and utilisation of H2 in future,” said the envoy.

The government announced a Hydrogen Mission in the Budget 2021-22 as part of its efforts to cut dependence on oil and bring down the economy’s carbon footprint.

Miyamoto Shingo, Minister, Head of Economic Section, Embassy of Japan, New Delhi, also plugged for cooperation in the field.

“India & Japan are in a very good position to work together in the area of producing eco-friendly hydrogen, for example from bio-fuel with a possibility of the two countries cooperating in this area is huge,” he said.

Referring to India’s target of 450 GW power generation by 2030 from renewables, Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said: “This means that India has to look at energy storage options which are green, unlike batteries and Hydrogen certainly is a very good candidate.”

He informed that DST has initiated several programmes to develop technologies to reduce the cost of hydrogen production, distribution, storage, diversify the feedstock available for hydrogen production, for example, biomass, agricultural waste and so on.

DST, Sharma said, is looking into new catalysts like producing hydrogen from water splitting.

“Hydrogen has a potential role to play in major sectors in India. Given the scale of future demand, India should be proactive in manufacturing electrolysers to produce green hydrogen.

A greater cross-sectoral coordination between the governments can help realise the economy benefits of hydrogen fuel,” said Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Vibha Dhawan.

(UNI)