Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Friday announced a budget corpus of Rs2 trillion and a special land policy in order to achieve the goal of the state becoming a global green hydrogen production hub.
The announcement was made on the concluding day of the three-day Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. Addressing the event, Patel said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the target of achieving 50% of energy requirements through non-fossil fuel-based energy sources.
He has also set a target to develop a green hydrogen production capacity of 5 million tonne per annum by 2030. With the vision to help India achieve that target, the Gujarat government is announcing a production capacity of 3 million tonne per annum by the same time.”
“To achieve this ambitious target in time, the state government is allotting a budget corpus of Rs2 trillion for green hydrogen production. A land area of 200,000 hectare in Kutch and Banaskantha districts has also been allocated by the state government,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, VK Saraswat, member, NITI Aayog, said: “We need to reduce the cost of electrolysers by around 80%, and simultaneously, we will need to increase their efficiency by around 75%…For any energy source to be sustainable and affordable to Indian consumers, it is necessary that it be available at a price range of around Rs2 per unit.”
Apart from this, the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) and Gujarat State Petroleum (GSPC) inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GIFT IFSC and announced global hydrogen trading at GIFT City and the subsequent launch of the Global Hydrogen Price Index.