The government will launch a scheme for reducing the cost of production for electrolysers, Bhagwanth Khuba, minister of state for the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) said on Wednesday. Electrolysers are used to produce green hydrogen using electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind plants.
Khuba was speaking at the inauguration of the maiden international conference on hydrogen energy organised by the central board of irrigation and power.
The minister urged researchers present in the conference “for maximum research for hydrogen energy” to overcome the challenge of reducing the cost of production for electrolysers. Though there are sufficient capacities of installed and upcoming renewable energy generation sources in the country, the shortage of electrolysers can become a roadblock for meeting the estimated requirement on green hydrogen. The cost of electrolysers has the highest share in the total production cost of green hydrogen, which currently needs a sizeable sum of $3.6-5.8/kg to manufacture.
Union power minister RK Singh had said in September that the government will come up with a production linked incentive scheme for investors in electrolyser manufacturing. As much as 8,800 megawatt of electrolyser capacity is seen to be required to meet the demand of the obligated industries if they are mandated to source even 10% of their requirements through domestic green hydrogen.
As FE reported earlier, the government intends to put green hydrogen consumption obligations on fertiliser producers and petroleum refiners to create a hydrogen value chain in the country and bring down the costs of hydrogen production. The purchase obligation will likely be later increased to 20-25%.
