After the Chamba district administration and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the execution of the Pilot Hydrogen Project, Himachal Pradesh’s (HP) aspirational district Chamba will be the first district of the hill state to produce hydrogen fuel and run transportation.
In the presence of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, the MoU was signed by deputy commissioner (DC) Chamba DC Rana on behalf of the state government and group general manager of NHPC A K Pathak on behalf of NHPC.
Following the signing of the MoU, DC Rana stated that a grid-connected Ground Mounted Solar PV plant with a capacity of 300 KW will be erected in an area of around 200 acres, and the electricity generated would be used in the electrolyzer to manufacture hydrogen. “Chamba will be the first district in HP, and one of just a few districts in India, to create hydrogen fuel and use it for transportation,” DC stated.
“Around 20-kilogram hydrogen per day will be created by electrolysis, which will be classified as green hydrogen and kept under pressure.” “To make one kilogram of hydrogen fuel, nine to twelve liters of water will be used,” he stated.
A senior NHPC official, S K Sandhu, explained that under this initiative, the produced hydrogen would be stored in a 20kg fuel tank in a mobility vehicle such as a bus or a car and that the hydrogen would then be transported from the fuel tank to the hydrogen fuel cells installed in the bus as part of the main engine.
“These fuel cells will be able to generate electric power, which will be used to run the bus engine for up to 8 hours continuously or 200 kilometers in the local area of Chamba,” he said, adding that the NHPC would also provide one 32+1 seater bus as part of the pilot project, which would improve transportation in the area while reducing carbon emissions.
NHPC had taken up the Green Hydrogen project at Chamba as an initiative, according to Jai Ram Thakur, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India would become carbon neutral by 2070 and generate 500 GW from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, accounting for 50% of total installed capacity.
