India’s plans to produce so-called ‘green hydrogen’ — where the gas is produced without resulting in fossil fuel emissions — might end up worsening pollution if proper checks and balances are not in place, according to a study by environmental and energy think-tank, Climate Risk Horizons (CRH).
India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, piloted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) expects to manufacture five million tonnes by 2030. This would require the installation of renewable energy capacity worth 125 GW (1 GW is 1,000 megawatts) and the use of 250,000 gigawatt-hr units of power, equivalent to about 13% of India’s present electricity generation.
As of August 2023, India’s total renewable energy (RE) capacity (excluding hydropower dams bigger than 25 MW) stood at 131 GW; the 2030 green hydrogen plan thus envisages adding an equivalent RE capacity by 2030. This is over and above the 500 GW of RE capacity that India has committed to install by 2030 as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. To put that in perspective, India installed only 15 GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2023, against the 45 GW per year needed to reach the 2030 target.
