Green hydrogen is essential for long-distance mobility to avoid the use of large and unwieldly batteries, the Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh, said, adding that green hydrogen and green ammonia can lead to energy autonomy as well as export from India.

Welcoming the focus on green hydrogen in the latest Union Budget, Singh said that India is emerging as a leader in the green fuel with industries that are already in the process of setting up 6 billion tonne capacity of the same and Indian companies have already negotiated tie-ups for export orders to Germany and Japan.

Apart from greening power supply with solar, hydro and wind energy, the minister also asked for use of green hydrogen in other sectors as well, where fossil fuels are used as feed stock — for example. the steel sector, where the green fuel can be used as a reducing agent to replace coking coal.

He said battery storage as well as pump hydro systems are also being added to enable round-the-clock renewable energy supply.

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The minister lauded the Budget for allowing 3.5 percent of the fiscal deficit of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) for states, of which 0.5 would be tied to power sector reforms. This, he said, would incentivise reforms in the sector, and quite a few states have already come on board.

Singh described the Budget as 'investing in a green future' as he spoke about the 10 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy project that would be set up in Ladakh, and a line has also been approved in the Budget for the same for evacuation of power.

Talking about transmission losses of discoms, Singh told CNBC-TV18 they have reduced by 5 percent in a year, from 22 percent and 17 percent, and many discoms have already become profitable. According to the minister's estimates, India's power transmission losses would drop to 12-13 percent in a year, adding that the Budget-mandated blending of at least 5 percent of compressed biogas would give a fillip to the existing programme.

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Commenting on the challenges in expansion in the use of renewable energy, Singh described supply chains for solar PV Modules as a concern as 80-90 percent of their production was based out of one country. However, he added that supply chain diversification has led to a fall in import of raw materials to harness solar power, and India has even started exporting solar equipment after setting up manufacturing capacities.

With an existing manufacturing capacity of 25 GW in solar modules and another 10 GW under construction, India aims to have 65 GW manufacturing capacity of solar cells and modules by 2030 with 37 GW from polysilicon alone. With 85 percent of raw material manufactured in India for wind energy, Singh said that the supply chain is taken care of in this domain.

Pointing to the National Remote Sensing Centre's survey which indicated a 67 percent rise in illumination from 2012 to 2021 in the night sky in India, the minister said that power availability in rural areas has increased from 12.5 hours in 2015 to 22.5 hours, at present.

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