Govt May Unveil First Phase Of Green Hydrogen Policy Soon: Report

In a positive development, the government may soon announce the first phase of the green hydrogen policy.

"We are going to put mandates for replacement of grey hydrogen and grey ammonia with green hydrogen and green ammonia in a certain trajectory. That mandate will come out after clearance of the Cabinet," Union Power and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh was quoted in a Moneycontrol report as saying.

"What is going to be issued on Thursday or the day after is open access, banking, and free transmission,” he added.

According to the report, the first phase of the policy may not include viability gap funding and mandates for producers for green hydrogen and ammonia usage. These may be added in the second phase of the policy.

The minister further said that the renewable purchase obligations (RPOs) would now include battery storage apart from solar, wind, and hydro.

He added that the government aims to establish 229 gigawatt (GW) of renewable installed capacity by 2022-23.

The minister said the government wants to establish 229 GW renewable installed capacity by FY23.

Earlier in January, the Power Minister had said that the new green hydrogen policy would feature incentives like free power transmission for 25 years, offer of land in renewable energy parks, dollar-dominated bids and land allocation near ports for creating bunkers for green hydrogen or ammonia.

It should be noted that the Modi government had launced the National Hydrogen Mission last year to draw up a road map for using hydrogen as an energy source.