The India H2 Alliance (IH2A), an industry coalition of global and Indian companies, has proposed to the government to create a hydrogen-themed energy transition fund with the aim to raise $1 billion by 2030 for the deployment towards national hydrogen projects of a certain scale.
The newly formed industry group said on Tuesday that it has submitted a six-point agenda to the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for creating a domestic “Bharat H2” supply chain and to build hydrogen systems at scale, the statement said. The government should sign co-funding partnerships with sovereign partners, multi-lateral agencies, clean energy funds and industry, it added.
“Building a domestic ‘Make in India’ hydrogen supply chain will require a set of concerted actions to build hydrogen systems at scale,” said Jillian Evanko, CEO and President of Chart Industries, which along with Reliance Industries Ltd is the co-lead of the alliance’s steering committee. “The first step would be to create a public-private hydrogen taskforce that sets the right national ambition and scale.”
“A national electrolyser manufacturing mission and ten Hydrogen Valley projects by 2030 will bring India within the global hydrogen value-chain. Funding will remain a challenge and India should prioritise the creation of a dedicated national Hydrogen Fund to address part of this challenge,” she added.
The group has also asked the government to quickly finalise a uniform set of globally-harmonised and inter-operable standards for hydrogen storage, transport and dispensation.
“India should prioritise pre-feasiblity studies of at least ten national hydrogen valleys or hubs — large-scale demonstration stage projects with participation from industry consortia and incentives and off-take agreements guaranteed by the government,” the statement said.
India should also form an industrial group to leverage hydrogen for de-carbonisation efforts in steel, refineries, fertilizers and cement industrial clusters, and a separate heavy-duty freight transport group for hydrogen commerciaisation in railways, trucking and shipping, it added.
IH2A was recently launched as a new energy transition coalition to support commercialisation of hydrogen technologies and systems to build net zero carbon pathways in India.
