Demand for Hydrogen in India can Grow 5-Fold by 2050: TERI

A new report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) suggests that the demand for hydrogen in India can grow 5-fold by 2050.

The demand for hydrogen in India can grow five-fold by 2050. Further, by 2030, the costs of “green hydrogen” from renewables will fall more than 50 percent and start to compete with hydrogen from fossil fuels. These were the findings in the latest report published by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

The report, titled “The Potential Role of Hydrogen in India”, was created under TERI’s Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) India programme. It states that hydrogen needs to be targeted in sectors where direct electrification is not possible. These are heavy-duty, long-distance transport sectors, some industry sectors, and long-term seasonal storage in the power sector.

Further in transport, the report details that, battery electric vehicles (BEV) will become competitive across all segments, except for very long-distance, heavy-duty transport, which could be fuelled by hydrogen. And in industry, hydrogen can start to compete with fossil fuels in certain applications by 2030. For example, ammonia produced from green hydrogen will be competitive with the current incumbent technology of ammonia produced from fossil fuel-based hydrogen.

Further in the power sector, hydrogen could provide an important source of seasonal storage for variable renewables like solar and wind energy. Large amounts of seasonal storage will become necessary only when the share of wind and solar in total generation reaches very high levels (60-80 percent).

The report adds that green hydrogen production could require around 1000 TWh of renewables-based electricity by 2050, placing further pressure on power system decarbonisation.

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, VC – Niti Aayog, who launched the report said “in Government of India, we see hydrogen as our next big sunrise sector and a transition to the hydrogen economy as the way forward for India. I, therefore, hope that some of my optimism about the sector will prevail in combination with a coordinated policy thrust from us.”

He added that improvement in technology and fall in the cost of hydrogen will happen sooner than estimated.

Emphasizing the need to look at hydrogen growth in India from the point of view of demand, Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI, said, “The falling cost of hydrogen will drive its uptake, with initial scale-up being driven by collaborations between progressive public and private players… India has an opportunity to grow an economically competitive low carbon hydrogen sector that can spur job growth to reduce energy imports, whilst drastically reducing emissions.”