PERSPECTIVE

Green Hydrogen will achieve and to what level Green Hydrogen will displace fossil fuels. The major challenges to the scaling of circular hydrogen economy relate to waste and cost management, the transport of hydrogen, infrastructure requirements for storage and environmental safety concerns. The IEA has listed a few solutions in its report in relation to these concerns. It has said that during the journey, there will be many challenges. For each challenge, though, there is a viable solution, and it can be achieved.

Considering the potential of Green Hydrogen, the IEA recently has initiated cooperative projects with Oman to expand and improve Green Hydrogen generation in the country[15]. The first such project is to develop Green Hydrogen markets for energy and local industry uses. This will involve identifying the industrial and productive sectors that currently rely on natural gas, and exploring the possibility of switching them over to Green Hydrogen. As a result, Oman will eventually be less dependent on natural gas and will be able to build additional industrial projects that will increase the economic worth of natural gas and work to draw in investors and technology developers. The second initiative aims at developing local Green Hydrogen production capacity while utilising Oman’s infrastructure in the areas of oil, gas, ports and the spot electricity market, among other areas.

Conclusion and recommendations

A successful national hydrogen economy will lead to a strong Oman. Realising the potential of Green Hydrogen, the Government of Oman has taken many initiatives through various institutions and would like to show the world that it can use Oman as an example to follow in energy transition and economic diversification. Many will continue to see Green Hydrogen as the ‘golden key’ to unlocking a net-zero future. It is a beginning. Any changes may have to face challenges. The national mission of Net Zero Carbon by 2050 drives Green Hydrogen as the future energy of Oman. This paper’s main aim was to highlight that Green Hydrogen is going to play a significant role in meeting the Government of Oman’s national mission of reducing the emission of carbon.

The writer has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, and is a visiting faculty at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. He may be contacted at bagyanandini@gmail.com

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