Will soon seek Cabinet nod for green hydrogen consumption mandate: Power minister

New Delhi: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will soon seek Union Cabinet's approval for a mandate on the use of green hydrogen in different industries.

As per the consumption mandate, various industries especially petroleum, steel and fertilizers, would be mandated to consume certain proportion of green hydrogen.

At present various industries use hydrogen produced using energy from non-fossil fuel-based sources.

"Basically that (green hydrogen consumption) mandate fixation is in process.  By and large, we have had the discussions and we have come up with some figures, and we will go to the cabinet soon," Union Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said at the BNEF Summit here.

"We have had discussions with the concerned ministries on this," he said, adding that most ministries want the mandates to be small to start with, "but I want a larger mandate for obvious reasons".

The minister explained that the government amended the Energy Conservation Act, which gives power to the government to lay down mandates for changing the feedstock from fossil to non-fossil.

"So I can mandate fertilizer, petroleum (industries) etc. For instance, I can ask fertilizer and petroleum (units) that you are using grey hydrogen or get ammonia and certain percentage of that has to be green from this year onwards. Gradually escalating it so that 100 per cent of that is green hydrogen," he said.

At present the ministry is debating with stakeholders the issue of the proportion of green hydrogen for industries.

This assumes significance in view of the National Green Hydrogen Mission launched by the government earlier this year.

On 4th January 2023, the Union Cabinet had approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore from FY24 to FY30.

The overarching objective of the mission is to make India a global hub for production, usage and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

The mission is expected to reduce Rs 1 lakh crore worth of fossil fuel imports and nearly 50 million tonnes per annum of CO2 emissions by 2030.