The Netherlands has offered to facilitate import of Indian green hydrogen into Europe, in addition to buying "significant quantities" of green hydrogen for its own use, reports the Business Line newspaper.
This assumes significance against the backdrop of Europe desiring alternatives to Russian natural gas. “One of the alternatives is green hydrogen. As it happens, it is one of the goals for India to become a net exporter of green hydrogen; we could become a net importer, because the Netherlands doesn’t have enough space to produce all the green hydrogen ourselves,” Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Climate Envoy of The Netherlands, has told visiting Indian journalists.
The war in Ukraine has put dialogue around energy dependence on a faster mode. There is a need for alternatives to Russian gas.
The report says that green hydrogen is derived from water electrolysis using renewable energy like solar or wind. Biomass-based hydrogen production technologies also qualify under the green category. On the other hand, brown and grey hydrogen are produced through coal gasification and natural gas reforming, respectively. These production pathways generate a significant amount of carbon dioxide. Integration with appropriate carbon capture and utilisation technologies results in blue hydrogen.
Focus area
Indian Oil has already announced setting up the nation’s first ‘Green Hydrogen’ plant at its Mathura refinery. Hydrogen being the cleanest form of energy is the latest focus area across the globe to satiate the rising energy needs.
According to Parme, the requirement for green hydrogen is not just for the energy-intensive industry, but also for transport and household usages. Potentially, gas could be replaced by green hydrogen. “The Netherlands is well-positioned to be your gateway to the rest of Europe, with the Port of Rotterdam as Europe’s biggest port, linking Northern European countries, including Germany and Belgium,” he said, adding that there’s a potential to explore for two countries.
According to calculations by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), India needs about $42 billion over the period till 2030 per year for the annual renewal energy investments.
Netherlands is the fifth biggest Foreign Direct Investor in India. So, “you can expect to see these investments shifting from fossil fuels to renewals, going forward”, he said.
Talking about potential in industry for use of green hydrogen, he said he is in dialogue with the industry because they should be placing orders. “So, the question is how do we structure it and what infrastructure do we need. Are you going to ship hydrogen as ammonia or in frozen form? All that needs to be agreed to see which way is the best. Right now, Singapore and Japan are the furthest developed in importing green hydrogen, so we are looking at them also to set the standard and to see what is the standard going forward,” he said.
Netherlands is working with India on an MoU on Renewable Energy. It has MoU’s with quite a few countries as an open agreement to see and explore how we can work together. “There are several areas of collaboration, such as research, knowledge, building plants and infrastructure such as ports and solar and wind generation. All these areas need to be mapped out and severely reduce emissions if we are to preserve a futureproof planet,” he said.
The MoU is expected to be taken up during the visit of President Ram Nath Kovid to Netherlands next month.
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