Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors.

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.

Key phrases: Green hydrogen and ammonia policy, Renewable electricity, electrolysis, lower carbon footprint, manufacturing zones, methane.

Why in News?

• The Ministry of  Power on Thursday notified the green hydrogen and ammonia policy under which the government is offering to set up manufacturing zones for production, connectivity to the ISTS (inter-state transmission system) on priority basis, and free transmission for 25 years if the production facility is commissioned before June 2025.

What is Green Hydrogen?

• Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. It is produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy (like Solar, Wind) and has a lower carbon footprint.
• Green Hydrogen can act as an energy storage option, which would be essential to meet intermittencies (of renewable energy) in the future.
• In terms of mobility, for long distance mobilisations for either urban freight movement within cities and states or for passengers, Green Hydrogen can be an option along besides used in railways, large ships, buses or trucks, etc.

Key highlight of Green Hydrogen and Ammonia Policy:

• The government has raised its production target by five times from 1 million tonnes (m) to 5 mt by 2030. In October last year, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Bhagwanth Khuba had said that India is targeting initially around1 million tonnes annual green hydrogen production by 2030.
• The policy offers that green hydrogen and ammonia manufacturers may purchase renewable power from the power exchange or set up renewable energy (RE) capacity themselves or through any other, developer, anywhere.
• The government will provide open access within 15 days of receipt of application and manufacturers can bank (store) their unconsumed renewable power, up to 30 days, with the Discom and take it back when required.
• Waiver of inter-State transmission charges for 25 years will be allowed to the manufacturers of green hydrogen/ ammonia for projects commissioned before June 30, 2025.
• The manufacturers of green hydrogen/ ammonia and the RE plant shall be given connectivity to the grid on priority basis to avoid any procedural delays. The benefit of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) will be granted incentive to the hydrogen/Ammonia manufacturer and the Distribution licensee for consumption of renewable power.
• The government has also proposed to set up manufacturing zones, and green hydrogen/ ammonia plants can be set up in any of the manufacturing zones. Besides, producers will be allowed to set up bunkers near ports for storage of green ammonia for export by shipping. The land for storage will be provided by the respective port authorities at applicable rates.

How does Green hydrogen differ from traditional emissions-intensive ‘grey’ hydrogen and blue hydrogen?

• Green hydrogen is a very different pathway compared to both grey and blue. Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.
• Grey hydrogen is traditionally produced from methane (CH4), split with steam into CO2 – the main culprit for climate change – and H2, hydrogen. Grey hydrogen has increasingly been produced also from coal, with significantly higher CO2 emissions per unit of hydrogen produced so much that is often called brown or black hydrogen instead of grey. It is produced at industrial scale today, with associated emissions comparable to the combined emissions of UK and Indonesia. It has no energy transition value, quite the opposite.
• Blue hydrogen follows the same process as grey, with the additional technologies necessary to capture the CO2 produced when hydrogen is split from methane (or from coal) and store it for long term. It is not one colour but rather a very broad gradation, as not 100% of the CO2 produced can be captured, and not all means of storing it are equally effective in the long term. The main point is that capturing large part of the CO2, the climate impact of hydrogen production can be reduced significantly.

Way Forward:

• Hydrogen and Ammonia are envisaged to be the future fuels to replace fossil fuels. Green hydrogen and Green ammonia, is one of the major requirements towards environmentally sustainable energy security of the nation.
• Key challenges to Green hydrogen production involve reducing costs associated with capital equipment and Electricity. There is a need to boost support for the production of green hydrogen.
• Based on both economical and environmental consideration hydrogen production from water will be a promising option.
• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India has realized the potential and role of Green hydrogen in the Indian context and has initiated a number of programmes for the promotion of Green hydrogen conversion technologies to be used in various sectors of the economy.
• The much-awaited recently announced green hydrogen/ green ammonia policy will go a long way in enhancing their production and usage in India. Hydrogen being quite expensive at present and needed a more policy push from government to increase demand and supply to build scale for further technological evolution and ultimate cost reduction. Measures such as open access of RE, storage, banking and free transmission are very useful.

Source: The Hindu BL 

Mains Question:

Q. Country like India which need vast resource of Energy for its economy, in this context discuss the scope of Green Hydrogen and Ammonia Policy to fulfil India need of Energy resources. Critically analyse. (250words).