Hydrogen Industry Stakeholders Eye Financing Support in Union Budget

To build India’s hydrogen economy, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel and Chart Industries-led India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) have sought financing support from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the upcoming Union Budget 2022-23.

In line with this, the Industry body has made submissions to the Government, in which it has requested budgetary support for the creation of 10 National BharatH2 Clusters, a USD 1 billion Hydrogen Economy Development Fund (HEDF) and a Public-Private Hydrogen Taskforce.

The India Hydrogen Alliance is an industry-led coalition of global and Indian companies committed to the creation of a hydrogen value chain and economy in India.

Further, IH2A said that it has submitted its expectations to the NITI Aayog, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Steel and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

As per the industry body IH2A estimate, India would require about USD 25 billion of investments, from the public and private sectors, to create a domestic hydrogen supply chain with a national installed electrolyser capacity of 25 GW producing 5 MT of Green Hydrogen by 2030.

It also stated that coordinated public-private actions will be required to develop the first generation of large-scale commercial hydrogen projects.

Besides, the industry body has also recommended creation of a nodal office for the hydrogen economy, as a specialised cell to work across all central ministries.

Commenting on IH2A submissions, Jillian Evanko, CEO and President, Chart Industries, and founding member of India Hydrogen Alliance, said, “funding support is critical for the development of a hydrogen economy in India.”

She further said “a comprehensive set of policy interventions and budget incentives covering the entire hydrogen value chain are needed. Public and private funding for hydrogen should cover the entire supply chain – from production and supply-side, storage and transport as well as demand-side to encourage industrial off-take in hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy.”

Talking about submissions for the Budget, Jill Evanko said, “we have proposed a Hydrogen Economy Development Fund to be created to fund at least 10 GW-scale National H2 Projects by end 2022 bringing together consortia of industry players to create the first-generation of national hydrogen clusters.”

“We have also proposed a public-private Bharat H2 Taskforce that will act as the combined expert advisory group, bringing together national and global hydrogen expertise in hydrogen technology, project development, safety standards and funding, to all Indian stakeholders. The creation of the public-private Bharat H2 Taskforce is critical for meeting the national ambitions for hydrogen commercialization and developing a domestic supply chain in India,” she added.

Meanwhile, IH2A said that it is working with the private sector, government and the public to ensure that costs of hydrogen production would be brought down, and a local supply chain for hydrogen and industrial, power and transport sector demand would be created.