India is interested in collaborating with France in the area of green hydrogen, a government official said recently.
Vandana Kumar, additional secretary, ministry of new and renewable energy, stated at a workshop on decarbonised hydrogen hosted by the Embassy of France in India and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW): “Our industry is very eager to participate in the green hydrogen movement on its own in terms of generation of hydrogen and production of various technologies, and we look forward to our cooperation with France in this regard.”
Noting that the two nations have already reached an agreement on a joint statement of intent, she stated: “We are looking forward to a suitable occasion, a suitable ceremony, that would be signed between India and France very soon”
Regarding India’s quest for renewable energy, the official stated that the country has 158 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, with another 87 GW planned.
The French ambassador to India, Emmanuel Lenain, stated in his address that green hydrogen offers great promise as a future clean energy vector.
“It also signals a new chapter of ambitious cooperation between France and India, as agreed to by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi in Paris on May 4.” By capitalizing on the synergies between our countries’ ambitious national hydrogen programs, France and India can collaborate on green hydrogen to expedite our transition to sustainable energy, accomplish our carbon neutrality goals, and increase our energy independence.
Renewable energy has evolved as a pillar of Indo-French collaboration over the past decade. At the government level, India and France co-founded the International Solar Alliance, collaborate on multilateral platforms to advance an ambitious international climate agenda, and have established a roadmap for collaboration between relevant ministries on renewable energy.
More than 24 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy projects have been commissioned or are in the process of development in India thanks to the private sector investments of French firms.
Decarbonized hydrogen is a priority area of cooperation in this context. Both nations view it as a viable technology for decarbonizing various difficult-to-control economic sectors, such as refinery, fertilisers, petrochemicals, steel, heavy transportation, shipping, and aviation.
In August 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the National Hydrogen Mission, which aims to produce 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of green hydrogen by 2030. Similarly, France unveiled its decarbonized hydrogen strategy in September 2020, allocating more than 7 billion euros to the development of decarbonized hydrogen and 6.5 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity by 2030.
