India Leaps Forward in Clean Energy with Top-Notch Manufacturers Foraying into Green Energy Production

As major countries drive to a green energy future, India has also geared up to take lead in embracing the energy transition which is being fostered by major petrochemical players of the country.

India’s state-owned natural gas producer and provider, Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has announced its ambition to build India’s largest green hydrogen generation plant to augment its natural gas production and supply chains. The company anticipates building a 10 MW electrolyzer which could enable generation of 4.5 tonnes of green hydrogen in a day. GAIL has finalized 2-3 production sites including one in Madhya Pradesh and expects to complete construction of the production plant in 12-14 months.

In the October third week, India’s multinational conglomerate company and petrochemical giant, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has signed a deal with Stiesdal A/S, a Denmark based company focussed on building clean energy technologies, to mass-produce Stiesdal’s ultra-low cost electrolyzer at RIL’s new gigafactory in Gujarat. With this deal, RIL targets to offer hydrogen energy below USD 1 per kg within a decade. The deal falls under RIL’s planned investment of USD 10 billion on renewable hydrogen energy which was announced by RIL director Mukesh Ambani in June 2021.

Another India’s major conglomerate company, Adani Group, which has recently entered the petrochemical business with the launch of its subsidiary Adani Petrochemicals Ltd., will also be venturing into green fuel production. The company is working on strategies to formulate the production of green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol, and green fertilizers.

An electrolyzer is a device, powered by renewable sources like wind energy or solar energy, that produces hydrogen by facilitating electrochemical splitting of water. Given that the overall process uses only renewable sources from operation to feedstock stages, the produced hydrogen is termed as ‘green hydrogen’. Green hydrogen is viewed to bring energy revolution across the globe with its zero-carbon emission capability.

In the past two years, India has expedited its efforts in the direction of sustainability by devising new renewable energy targets. For instance, India is driving a clean energy mission to achieve a capacity of 175 GW renewable energy by 2022 that includes solar power generation at the heart of the mission. Furthermore, India will be collaborating with the UK to plan investments dedicated to advancing green technology and clean energy production.

As per ChemAnalyst, the Indian companies are trying to encash the growing renewable energy market trend and simultaneously obliging to the government’s clean energy vision by incurring huge investments in technologies that could aid in achieving carbon neutrality. India, which ranks among one of the largest economies in the world, has the capability to inflict a huge impact in mitigating climate change through its efforts towards the transition to green energy. The inclination of India towards green energy is going to boost the demand for hydrogen and other renewable energies to a new high. Also, the supply of renewable energies is also expected to ease out in India and the Asia-Pacific region which is expected to give way to lower down the prices of hydrogen and other green energies.