'Public-private partnership can expedite process of achieving green hydrogen economy'

New Delhi, July 7 Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that the Centre has put up an eco-system for the development of green hydrogen and government sectors with support from private companies can expedite the process of achieving a green hydrogen economy.

In his valedictory address at an international conference, Puri said that green hydrogen is an idea whose time has come.

He informed the gathering on the last day of the three-day long conference on green hydrogen that public sector entities have been earmarked to produce more than 1 MMT of green hydrogen by 2030.

The global demand for hydrogen is expected to reach 200 million tonnes by 2030, Puri said.

The minister noted that there is now a global consensus towards making a transition to renewable energy.

"India has embarked on a new journey and requires active support and collaboration amongst all the stakeholders and with the recent launch of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Government means business," he said.

"We have a natural advantage in producing green hydrogen as we have an abundance of solar energy and investments in our power grid. We have an apt climate, resources, adequate production and a strong supply-chain for green hydrogen," the minister added.

"The European Investment Bank (EIB) will be our hydrogen ally and would support developing a large scale industry hub with a funding of 1 billion Euros. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has recently conveyed their intent to provide $20–$25 billion over five years to aid India’s aspirations for green growth. That's not all, the World Bank has approved $1.5 billion in financing to support India’s low-carbon transition journey," he informed the gathering.

Talking about the importance of public and private players coming together to bring the future fuel on the global platform, the petroleum minister informed that several review meetings at industry level are regularly being undertaken to find out ways to boost the hydrogen production capacity in India.

"We will ensure uptake of green hydrogen in refineries and city gas distribution (CGD) through both public sector entities and the private sector and try to design new projects with maximum chances of hydrogen deployment to strategically phase out fossil fuels and aid de-carbonisation goals," he noted.