Hydrogen joins the green energy play

 

24/7 power powered solely through renewable energy is in the works with the Union government preparing pilot projects to run wind and solar power with green hydrogen power.

The Union power ministry is expected to assign state-owned NTPC Ltd and Coal India Ltd to manage the pilots, according to two people familiar with the issue.

"There was the first round of discussions that included all stakeholders about the possibility of combining wind and solar power, as well as the power generated by the hydrogen-powered gas turbine that is green. The talks are expected to get underway soon," one of the two officials mentioned above stated on the request for confidentiality.

Because the power generated by wind and solar power plants is unpredictable, they require the support of a reliable power source like thermal power or battery storage to provide continuous power. Current round-the-clock (RTC) energy green projects in India mainly comprise thermal management. The pilots planned for the future will be less polluting than the earlier RTC projects because the thermal energy will replace the power generated by green hydrogen-backed turbines.

A standard gas turbine-based power plant utilizes high temperatures and pressure to spin the turbine. Experts suggest burning hydrogen to reduce carbon emissions from gas turbines by substituting natural gas with non-polluting hydrogen.

For NTPC, it is yet another significant step in renewable energy. The company last week solicited Emotions of Interest (EoI) from Indian and international companies to create the first pilot project of hydrogen production with electrolyzers.

Coal India, too, is going through a shift in its diversification strategy lately, including recent ventures into solar power and gasification. The pilot project is an additional step in the diversification strategy as it seeks to reduce dependence on its primary fossil fuels business.

The ministries of coal and power NTPC and Coal India remained unanswered till press time.

Deepesh Nanda, chief executive of GE Gas Power South Asia, said that by generating hydrogen-powered gas turbines, power plants could increase power load, which means more power in a given period of time, as compared to traditional energy sources.

Ganapati Dr. Yadav, the national chair of science at the Science and Engineering Research Board, said that using green hydrogen will also help lower the price of electricity and, eventually, the cost of tariffs. "Solar wind, hydrogen, and solar are the key elements in the renewable energy targets of government. goals and hydrogen is predicted to make up 25 percent of India's renewable power supply in the near future," he said.

India already has an installed capacity for renewable energy of 159.949GW, which is close to 40 percent of the power capacity installed in the nation. However, the government plans to increase the ability to 500GW in renewable capacity before 2050 and attain carbon neutrality by 2070.

After the announcement of the government in August 2021 to create the Green Hydrogen Mission, developments have been gaining momentum in the field. They have seen several large industrial and renewable energy companies and the public sector oil and gas firms announcing plans to develop green hydrogen.

In February, the ministry of renewable energy published its National Green Hydrogen Policy, promising lower power costs as well as a fee-free interstate power transmission for 25 years in the event of projects being commissioned before June 2025, the acquisition of the possibility of land being used within renewable energy parks along with mega-production zones that will help industries get off fossil fuels.

The plan, designed to promote green ammonia and green hydrogen, and green ammonia, also emphasized "banking," which is the storage or holding of power from green sources where green power producers could store excess renewable energy by partnering with power distribution companies for up to 30 days.