Why in the news?
The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) may call bids for setting up green hydrogen plants.
What is Green Hydrogen?
- Green hydrogen is a next generation fuel, with gas produced through electrolysis from water by using electricity generated through non-greenhouse gas (GHG) producing energy sources such as wind, solar or hydro.
- Most of the gas that is already widely used as an industrial chemical is either brown, if it’s made through the gasification of coal or lignite; or gray, if it is made through steam methane reformation. Neither of these processes is exactly carbon-friendly.
- As far as blue hydrogen is concerned, gas is produced by steam methane reformation but the emissions are curtailed using carbon capture and storage.
- Green hydrogen, in contrast, could almost eliminate emissions by using renewable energy — increasingly abundant and often generated at less-than-ideal times — to power the electrolysis of water.
- Hydrogen is also produced from others sources such as coal, oil and gas.
- Being emission free and having three times higher energy content per unit mass than gasoline, green hydrogen is being looked at as a preferred fuel source for both transportation and storage applications.
Clean energy in India
- Clean energy projects now account for more than a fifth of India’s installed power generation capacity.
- India now has 34.6 GW of solar power and 38GW of wind power and seeks to produce 100 GW from solar projects and 60GW from wind power plants by March 2022.
(References: The Mint, greentechmedia)
