Potential Green Hydrogen Applications in India’s Power Sector

Abstract

Hydrogen, an attractive energy carrier due to its high energy content per unit mass, offers multiple promising pathways towards significant global decarbonization efforts. While traditional hydrogen production relies on fossil fuels (gray hydrogen), using renewable electricity sources for electrolysis enables the production of green hydrogen, a crucial step towards a sustainable future. RMI and NITI Aayog project that India’s hydrogen demand will rise by about 23 million tons from 2020 to 2050, with 94% of that increase representing an opportunity for green hydrogen. The country’s current hydrogen production relies heavily on steam methane reforming (SMR), but the National Green Hydrogen Mission hopes to establish India as a global hub for green hydrogen production, use, and export. Incentivizing green hydrogen supply chain investment, replacing gray hydrogen in existing applications, and supporting pilot projects in sectors like steel manufacturing and long-haul transportation are key strategies. Green hydrogen offers potential solutions to India’s present grid reliability challenges through long-duration energy storage, captive power generation, and ammonia co-firing. Storing excess renewable energy as green hydrogen can address renewable variability across a wide array of time periods. India, commonly relying on pumped hydro storage (PHS) and battery-based storage, could benefit from green hydrogen’s geographical flexibility (compared to PHS), socio-economic benefits, and extended storage capacity and duration. Decarbonizing captive generation, by replacing coal assets with green hydrogen in captive fuel cells and hydrogen gas turbines, is another key application. Finally, ammonia co-firing in existing coal power plants, using green hydrogen-derived ammonia, offers a pathway to reducing carbon emissions. Adding green ammonia, a carbon-free fuel, to the combustion process can reduce emissions without requiring complete replacement of existing infrastructure. International examples, such as the long-standing Teesside hydrogen storage project in the UK and ongoing ammonia co-firing demonstrations in Japan, provide valuable insights and context for India’s energy transition.