[Ferro-Alloys.com]

 

India intends to introduce production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for electrolyser manufacturing and for the "initial 4mn-5mn t/yr" of renewable hydrogen production, but sees no place for blue hydrogen, the country's minister for new and renewable energy Raj Kumar Singh has said.

 

"We'll have PLI for electrolysers and we will also have PLI for manufacturing green hydrogen", Singh said. "But I think that PLI for manufacturing green hydrogen will only be required for the initial capacities. Maybe the initial 4mn t or 5mn t. Thereafter the green hydrogen [sector] will stand on its own feet."

 

Singh did not specify the shape that the PLI schemes would take, with incentives varying between the 14 sectors for which they have been introduced. His ministry has until now been responsible for one such scheme — focusing on manufacturing high-efficiency solar photovoltaic modules — which may to some degree serve as a blueprint for hydrogen PLIs. The mechanism was open to domestic and foreign companies and provides funding over the first five years of a solar PV factory's lifetime, with the exact support depending on multiple factors, including sales volumes and local value addition. Eligibility depended on parameters such as the level of integration across solar cells and modules, manufacturing capacity and module performance.

 

Singh stressed that India's focus in the energy transition will be on hydrogen produced using renewable capacity and that there will be no place for blue hydrogen, which is made from natural gas or coal with carbon capture and storage.

 

Singh said he "received proposals from developed countries for signing agreements on decarbonised hydrogen" — but emphasised he has no interest in this. "Let's stop talking about decarbonised hydrogen," he said. "In proposals that have come for decarbonised hydrogen, I am cutting out the word ‘decarbonised' and writing the word ‘green' hydrogen."

 

"If you think you can store CO2 in the wells which you have dug to take out oil, [that is] possible, but it might leak", he said. "It might contaminate your water sources… It will still be a threat to the world, just like nuclear wastage."

 

The vast majority of India's hydrogen today is still made from natural gas, although without CCS and hence without abatement of CO2 emissions.

 

But Delhi has already taken the first steps towards paving the way for hydrogen from renewable sources. Earlier this year it introduced a raft of measures to help spur investment into projects, including a waiver on electricity transmission fees for green hydrogen producers. Delhi is targeting renewable hydrogen production of 5mn t/yr by 2030, although some organisations have called for more ambitious goals.

 

Renewable hydrogen produced in India is already among the least expensive globally, based on Argus estimates. Argus estimates prevailing production costs in India using a 100MW proton exchange membrane electrolyser fed by directly-connected wind and solar installations at just under $5/kg, including recovery of capital expenditure.

 

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