Sustainable hydrogen push to biofuels pact: India’s long green strides in 2023

livemint.com:

₹19,744 crore National Green Hydrogen Mission with an aim to produce 5 million tonnes green hydrogen annually by 2030. Apart from encouraging projects for the usage of green hydrogen in sectors such as railways and shipping and supporting research and development, the mission has also allocated ₹17,490 crore for incentives under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) Programmes to boost production of green hydrogen and electrolyzers.

In another major move this year, the government in April announced plans to add 50GW of renewable energy capacity annually till FY28 in a bid to achieve the 500GW installed renewable energy by 2030. The ministry of new and renewable energy announced that these annual bids of ISTS (Inter-State Transmission System) connected renewable energy capacity will also include setting up of wind power capacity of at least 10GW per annum.

This very road map of adding 50GW renewable energy capacity is expected to provide the impetus to power developers and states to push for more green energy projects. Sumant Sinha, founder, chairman and CEO, ReNew, said, “Renewables have steadily moved on to a stepped-up trajectory this year, as the country prepares to achieve capacity additions of 50GW annually.

NTPC, SJVN and NHPC bringing out bids, in addition to Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has helped to accelerate the bid issuances." Noting that green hydrogen has gained prominence in the past two years, he said the National Green Hydrogen Mission has helped to kick-start the sector in India with several key states recognizing the opportunity and bringing in policies.