Norwegians support India’s National Hydrogen Mission
Norway’s Greenstat Hydrogen India Pvt Ltd has signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with IndianOil Corp Ltd for developing a Center of Excellence on Hydrogen (CoE-H) including CCUS and Fuel Cells for clean energy in cooperation with Indo-Norwegian Hydrogen Cluster companies and organizations.
The CoE-H will facilitate transfer and sharing of technology, know-how and experience through the green Hydrogen value chain and other relevant technologies including hydrogen storage and fuel cells.
The CoE-H will be a vehicle for promoting R&D projects in Green and Blue Hydrogen between Norwegian and Indian R&D institutions and universities, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said on 18 Feb 2021.
The National Hydrogen Energy Mission was announced in the Budget 2021-22 with the aim to lay down the Government’s vision, intent and direction for hydrogen energy, strategies and approaches for realizing the vision.
“Working closely with Industry and Governments on both sides, CoE-H will be levering its intellectual strengths in developing cost-efficient and scalable and sustainable technological solutions,” said the Ministry.
The CoE will also pilot fuel cell research. The institute will also act as a think-tank towards developing codes and standards for best industrial practices, safety, product protocols and regulations in the area of hydrogen and fuel cells.
The partnership between IndianOil and Greenstat will actively assist partners/stakeholders to develop business models based upon feasibility studies besides facilitating consultancies to industry, utilities and regulators on hydrogen storage, hydrogen production, refueling stations, fuel cells and CCUS technologies.
“We see hydrogen as the future energy,” Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan said at the SoI signing, and underlined the Indian Government’s focus on exploration of new and emerging forms of energy.
He called for greater synergy between science, technology and entrepreneurship to create win-win for all.
A pilot project for blending hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as transportation fuel is running at Rajghat Bus depot in Delhi. Under this pilot, 50 buses in Delhi are plying on blended Hydrogen in Compressed Natural Gas and result are extremely encouraging.
The use of green and renewable energy is paramount in the efforts to combat global climate change, stressed Norwegian Ambassador Hans Jacob Frydenlund at the SoI signing.
He highlighted Norway’s strength and experience in green energy and expressed willingness to work together with India in the area of hydrogen energy.
Greenstat Hydrogen India is a unit of Greenstat AS developing a network in India. Greenstat has founded Greenstat Asia and received NOK 700 000 from Innovation Norway towards a commercial endeavor in Asia.
“We are seeing a lot of positive attitudes towards co-operating with Norwegian entities. That’s why we’ve chosen to invest here (in India) when looking towards Asia,” said Greenstat CEO Vegard Frihammer.
India is already known as a large producer and consumer of energy, and is also known to have significant problems with air pollution and large emissions in its urban areas. The main part of India’s energy consumption is based on fossil fuels (55.8% coal, 30% oil and gas), he noted.
“Furthermore, India’s great need for energy in the future has led them to substantial investments in renewable energy. 22% of their installed capacity today consists of solar and wind.
“But until now, India has not invested in hydrogen, unlike China and South Korea who are leading the development. As many other countries (Australia, the EU, and more), India has now decided that hydrogen will play an important role in the country’s energy mix as well as meeting national and global climate goals,” said Frihammer.
Indian authorities have decided that they will take a lead role in hydrogen in the coming years, and create the right conditions for quick expansion and large investments by drawing on top class competence, experience and technology, thereby securing high growth and development of ecosystems and economies in India.
“In our opinion there are great opportunities for Norwegian companies with technology and competence from renewable energy to assume a significant market position in this rapidly growing market. India is about to invest a staggering 450 GW in renewable and hydrogen within 2030, with about NOK300 billion in annual investments in order to reach this goal. With ambitions on such a scale, it’s no secret that India can yield, said Sturle Pedersen, Chairman of the Board in Greenstat Hydrogen India. #hydrogen #OPEC #projects #R&D #investment /fiinews.com
