Government expands green hydrogen use with new pilot scheme

Under the pilot scheme, the government would consider projects with innovative approaches for decentralised green hydrogen production, utilising sources such as rooftop solar, micro-hydel plants, floating solar installations, wastewater and biomass.

Currently, India’s green hydrogen production is negligible as it primarily produces grey hydrogen.

The central government has launched a pilot scheme to explore the use of green hydrogen for cooking, heating, and generator power at residential and community levels.

The President of India has sanctioned the scheme with a budgetary outlay of Rs 200 crore till FY 2025-26, a note floated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) inviting proposals from the industry showed.

The scheme aims to assess the technical feasibility of green hydrogen for various household, residential, and commercial applications, including city gas services, said a senior MNRE official who is not authorised to speak to the media.

Green hydrogen is a carbon-free fuel produced through electrolysis, a process that separates hydrogen from oxygen in water using an electric current. The electricity used in electrolysis comes from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, hence the term “green” hydrogen. The government is pushing for the use of green hydrogen to achieve its target of India becoming net-zero in emissions by 2070.

The government, so far, has worked primarily on replacing fossil fuels with green hydrogen in the industrial (chemicals, fertilisers, oil, gas, steel) and transportation (including shipping) sectors. The latest scheme will expand the scope of the National Green Hydrogen Mission to decentralised sectors such as residential, local community and commercial sectors.

The government through the scheme is inviting project proposals for innovations in the production of green hydrogen in a decentralised mode, which could be through rooftop solar, small/micro hydel plants, floating solar, wastewater and biomass utilisation. Green hydrogen produced will then be used for community-level applications, such as heating, cooking, and off-grid electricity generation or storage. Joint ventures, consortiums and partnerships, Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs), state PSUs, state corporations, Indian R&D institutions, academic institutions and NGOs can participate in the scheme.