The Center will launch a Hydrogen Energy Mission for air pollution control in 42 cities in 2021-22.

 

The Hydrogen Mission

 

According to a report released by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) “The Potential Role of Hydrogen in India – Harnessing the Hype” in December 2020, demand for hydrogen could increase by at least 5-fold by 2050, continuing to grow in the second half of the century in India.

Demand for hydrogen is at around 6 metric tons (MT) per annum, spacially from industrial areas, for example, fertilizers and refineries. This can rise to around 28 MT by 2050, especially because of cost decreases in key advancements and a push to diminish carbon footprint.

The report additionally projected that India would require 40 MT of green hydrogen to accomplish net zero fossil fuel byproducts by 2060. Mr. Ajay Mathur, who is the director-general of TERI, appreciated this approach.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announced a fund of ₹2,217 crores for this mission. In which hydrogen will be generating from green power sources. The Budget also gave a boost to solar energy by proposing to provide a capital infusion of ₹1,000 crores to the Solar Energy Corporation of India and ₹1,500 crores to the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.

The Finance Minister of India, Sitharaman in her budget speech said that “To build up domestic capacity, we will notify a phased manufacturing plan for solar cells and solar panels. At present, to encourage domestic production, we are raising duty on solar inverters from 5% to 20%, and on solar lanterns from 5% to 15%,”

Along with this, she also announced the removal of old and unfit vehicles for voluntary vehicle scrapping policy, “This will help in encouraging fuel-efficient, environment-friendly vehicles, thereby reducing vehicular pollution and oil import bill. Vehicles would undergo fitness tests in automated fitness centers after 20 years in the case of personal vehicles, and after 15 years in the case of commercial vehicles. Details of the scheme will be separately shared by the ministry,”

Director of Climate Program of World Resources Institute, Ulka Kelkar gave the statement, “The Hydrogen Energy Mission will be critical because hydrogen may be the only way to have zero carbon emissions from heavy industries like cement and steel — provided that hydrogen is produced by electrolysis from renewable electricity.”

With this, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, Centre for Science and Environment, said, “We still haven’t seen the scrappage policy so we don’t know what the fine print is. The scrappage policy is meant to be a stimulus to the economy and will also result in the transition to cleaner vehicles but it’s a voluntary policy so we will have to study the incentives and disincentives that come with it. There is continued focus on clean air in million-plus cities and the government has now detailed out its waste management policy with waste management at source, management of landfills, etc. A co-benefit of these will also be improved air quality, But we need to see how money for clean air was spent since last year. We need a performance budget to understand how the money is being utilized and what results from its yielding,”

 

 

Resource Hindustan Times

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