AP govt sets sights on making Vizag India’s 1st hydrogen city

Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh Government has proposed to make Visakhapatnam the first green hydrogen city in India even as the Centre has announced to drastically cut the cost of green hydrogen by a fifth over the next five years by offering incentives worth $2.2 billion.

The National Green Hydrogen Mission has been finalised by the Government of India with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore from FY24 to FY30 to make India a global hub for production, usage and export of green hydrogen and other forms of renewable energy, said Pankaj Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Monday.

He disclosed this while speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day Energy Environment Summit with focus on Hydrogen Energy Resource & Opportunity (HERO)-2023 organised by Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE), Visakhapatnam.

Expressing concern over excessive use of fossil fuels, he said the government is giving thrust on renewable energy production so as to achieve targets set for net zero carbon emissions as part of building a decarbonised economy.

The mission envisages that India's green hydrogen production will reach 5 MMT per annum leading to substantial reduction in dependence on crude exports thereby bringing down the usage of fossil fuels. The mission aims to stop import of fossil fuels worth Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030. He said the government is confident of avoiding about 50 MMT per annum of CO2 emissions by producing and using the targeted quantum of green energy.

Explaining about AP's New Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia Policy unveiled during the current year, MD & CEO of AP Solar Power Corporation M Kamlakar Babu said under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Visakhapatnam will be developed as the country's leading green hydrogen city.

He said the government has set a target for achieving a production capacity of 0.5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) of green hydrogen and 2 MTPA of green ammonia over next five years. He said the idea is to play the leading role in targets set for the country to cut its emissions to net zero by 2070.

At the Global Investors' Summit (GIS) organised here in March, power major NTPC signed MoU for establishing a standalone fuel cell based 50 KW microgrid pilot project with green hydrogen production using electrlyzter.

NTPC Simhadri officials told Bizz Buzz that they are confident of making the first phase of the Green Energy Park Project at Pudimadaka near here by 2026. The project will involve an investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore in phases on a 13.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar power and 6.6 GW of pumped storage project for usage in production of green hydrogen through electrolysis.

Prof GK Surya Prakash, George A and Judith A Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry, University of Southern California, in his address praised India's initiative to reduce dependence on import of fuels thereby cutting down green house effects and fossil fuel usage by laying top priority to production of green hydrogen, green ammonia and other renewable energies. Prof Shalivahan, Director, IIPE, Prof Somnath Ghosh, summit convener, Prof Roshan K Singh, organising secretary, among others, spoke.