India has potential to be global leader in green hydrogen production, says Amitabh Kant

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

India has the potential to be a global leader in green hydrogen story with proactive collaborations between innovators, entrepreneurs and government, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on August 12.

Speaking at the virtual Annual Session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kant noted that green hydrogen has the potential to drastically reduce co2 emissions, reduce energy imports and save precious foreign exchange. It will also help India export high-value green products, making it one of the first major economies to industrialise without the need to carbonise.

"In fact, India can be a major exporter of both green hydrogen and green ammonia. India has the potential to execute the world's largest green hydrogen programme to raise the annual production capacity of 5 million tons of 100 percent Zero Carbon green hydrogen by 2030 all for domestic demand," Kant said.

He noted that India is looking at innovative measures to reduce the capital costs for green projects such as renewables to reduce the solar prices.

" My view is that in the next five years solar prices should come down to Re 1 per unit. And, therefore, this will create a situation where India's green products will be cheaper than India's high carbon products," Kant observed.

According to the Niti Aayog CEO, only 18 percent of  India's final energy consumption is in the form of energy. The rest 82 percent needs other forms of decarbonisation.

"This is where green hydrogen comes into the picture," Kant remarked.

Kant added that as per Niti Aayog's analysis, Europe and America together will be importing close to 500 gigawatts of green hydrogen and green ammonia.

India should target to export at least 200 gigawatt of this green hydrogen and green ammonia by 2030, Kant said.

He called on the industry to set ambitious targets for itself and focus on green hydrogen, high-end batteries and advanced solar panels to become competitive and take the leadership position in the world.

"Without being globally competitive we cannot be apart of the global supply chain. We can do that by making every single company go digital, lean and skill it's labour," Kant remarked. 

He also said that India is the only G20 nation with a C-compliant rating.

"India for the first time, is ranking among the top 10 countries in the climate change performance index for all the efforts and activities being currently undertaken by the country," Kant said.

Kant also noted that Niti Aayog is working closely with many States on Electric Vehicles and green mobility and said that they have made progressive policies.

Urging the established industry to take risk, Kant also said that unlike the startups, the established industry is not as aggressive in its approach towards electric vehicles.

He also noted that the absolute number of startups in India is still low when compared to rest of the world and observed that most of the start-up funding is coming from global capital and not from the industry  houses.

Kant also noted that 200 billion worth of finance from the Indian private sector is needed to drive change.