Energetica India Magazine May-June 2021

NEWS POLICY India has Potential to Completely Reimagine its Energy Economy: Amitabh Kant India has the potential to completely re- imagine its energy economy by lever- aging decades of innovation in clean energy, said Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog. We can show the world that sustain- ability and rapid growth can go hand in hand, he added. He was speaking during the first dis - cussion of the ‘South-Asia New Energy Series’ organised by FTI Consulting and The Energy and Resources Insti- tute (TERI) on the topic ‘enabling policy and regulations’. This Series is a set of stakeholder con- sultations on five consecutive Thurs - days through June 2021, focusing on building renewables, battery tech and hydrogen based pathway for India. Emphasizing on reducing imports through green hydrogen usage in In- dia, Amitabh Kant said “green hydro- gen as an energy carrier can replace some of India’s energy-related imports. India consumes 8.5% of the global de- mand of hydrogen, made from 18 MT of import-dependent natural gas.” Kant added that, “we have among the lowest prices of renewable power, which can help India become a major producer of green hydrogen, critical to meet India’s ambitious target of 450 GW renewable energy by 2030. Every 1 GW of green hydrogen electrolysis needs 3 GW of renewable power. The potential is huge. We can use the sur- plus renewable power in peak generat- ing hours to produce green hydrogen, which will also protect the grid.” On the other hand, H.E. Ugo Astuto, Ambassador for the European Union to India, who also attended the Series, shared details about the European Union and India partnership on sustain- able solutions and said, “the EU and India have a well-established coopera- tion in place under the EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership. At the recent EU-India Leaders Meeting on 8 May, it was agreed to further strength- en this partnership and to step up co- operation in energy efficiency, renew - ables, smart grid & storage technology, modernizing the electricity market and strengthening regional electricity inter- connection.” “A new EU-India Connectivity Partner- ship was also agreed, which will foster work in sustainable digital, transport and energy networks,” Ugo Astuto added. “Future energy systems will have hy- drogen integrated with renewable ener- gy and battery technologies within this decade. The South Asia New Energy Series should lead to more regular ca- pacity-building for India stakeholders, and the sharing of best practices be- tween global industry players and gov- ernments. Policy makers and industry must collaborate on enabling policies, funding, standards and commercialisa- tion of new, clean energy systems like hydrogen. This builds on the momen- tum to facilitating commercialisation of hydrogen systems and policies in India,” commented Amrit Singh Deo, Senior Managing Director, Strategic Communications, FTI Consulting. On green hydrogen commercialisa- tion, Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director Gen- eral, TERI, said, “the South Asia New Energy Series connects developments between renewable energy and battery scale-up, with green hydrogen com- mercialisation. This has significant im - plications for policy design as well as project development. The government has already announced the formation of a National Hydrogen Energy Mis- sion. I expect the deliberations during the series will provide meaningful input to promote clean energy and facilitate more government-industry collabora- tion.” 11 energetica INDIA- May-June_2021