Hydrogen

Ayana Renewable, Greenstat Hydrogen Sign MOU

For Hydrogen Development In India

Ayana Renewable Power, a renewable energy platform majority controlled by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), focuses on development of utility scale renewable projects in India. Ayana’s vision is to be the lowest cost renewable energy producer which utilizes technology to maximize value creation. Ayana and Greenstat Hydrogen India, a Norwegian energy organization, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate the hydrogen technology development in India. The objective of this partnership is to collaborate on developing projects for production of green hydrogen. The Government of India announced in the Union Budget 2021, its plan to launch the National Hydrogen Mission.

Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Shivanand Nimbargi, Managing Director and CEO, Ayana Renewable Power says “Ayana is delighted to partner with Greenstat to accelerate the production of green hydrogen in India. For India, Hydrogen presents a great potential opportunity as it will decrease reliance on fossil fuels and focus on sustainable sources of energy. We anticipate that our initiatives will support the National Hydrogen Mission, to fasttrack India’s decarbonization of grid and providing energy storage solutions for industrial sector, and transportation sector over the next few years.”

Sturle Pedersen, Chairman, Greenstat Hydrogen India, said “leading a broad representation of Norwegian cutting-edge expertise within the hydrogen sector, we are thrilled to be a part of this exciting journey together with Ayana Power, the Indian industry, R&D institutes and the Indian government.”

After Reliance, IOC, NTPC, now GAIL

to Foray into Hydrogen

State-owned natural gas corporation GAIL plans to foray into hydrogen and ethanol production, as well as expanding its presence in the petrochemicals segment.

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Many countries are venturing into hydrogen production from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.

As for India, major companies like Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation, and NTPC have announced ambitious plans for generating hydrogen. GAIL has now joined that list.

“The global energy sector is witnessing a paradigm shift in recent years as the world is transitioning to a sustainable energy future,” GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Jain said in the company’s latest annual report.

As part of a push to embrace cleaner forms of energy, GAIL will be laying pipeline infrastructure to connect consumption centres to gas sources while also augmenting its renewable energy portfolio, he said.

“Your company has been scouting for opportunities to scale up the RE portfolio from the current 130 MW through bidding and other inorganic routes such as mergers and acquisitions. In addition, your company is also foraying into ethanol and hydrogen generation,” he said.

Jain further noted, to accomplish a cleaner primary energy mix for India, the government is emphasizing the expansion of the natural gas sector so as to achieve a gasbased economy along with growth in renewables. GAIL as a leading integrated energy major has aligned with this vision.

Accordingly, GAIL is laying around 6,000-kilometres of pipeline, including a west coast to east coast pipeline from Mumbai to Jharsuduga in Odisha via Nagpur. Currently, the firm has around 13,700-km of natural gas pipeline network.

GAIL Limited has targeted a 1 GWh renewable energy capacity by investing around Rs. 5,000 crores for setting up compressed biogas as well as ethanol plants.

Jain also said, GAIL has the largest and most diverse LNG portfolio in India that can offer both stable prices and reliable supply to consumers.

Additionally, the company has signed up with governmentowned power equipmentmaker BHEL to ramp up its renewables portfolio.

Green Hydrogen Tech Can Decarbonise

India’s Steel Sector: TERI

Green hydrogen technologies have the potential to drastically reduce CO2 emissions from primary steelmaking in India, allowing the sector to industrialise without the need to “carbonise,” finds new research by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

The study entitled “Green Steel through Hydrogen Direct Reduction: A Study on the Role of Hydrogen in the Indian Iron and Steel sector” provides a techno-economic analysis of the hydrogen direct reduction (H-DR) process to discusses its suitability in the Indian context. The study is a joint effort by TERI, Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH, Austria, and Siemens India.

According to the study, one of the leading technology options is using low or zero carbon hydrogen as a reducing agent in a direct reduction (DR) plant and subsequently using such low or zero carbon power for the electric arc furnace (EAF) to allow the production of green steel.

The environmental burden of steel is growing, and it will take a revolution in steelmaking technology to reduce its carbon intensity. Hydrogen may definitely be an answer provided other issues, such as its efficiency and cost, are addressed. Syn gas may be cheaper and for the time being it can be a substitute, but we have to get to the DRI route so that in future, hydrogen can be brought in to move towards zero emission, said Dr Mukesh Kumar, Director, Steel Research & Technology Mission of India, under the aegis of the Ministry of Steel.

Currently steel production via the DR-EAF route based on hydrogen is more expensive than the conventional steelmaking routes. The path to costcompetitiveness for green steel can be accelerated by broader action around the production of hydrogen, as well as supportive climate policy, the study says. It recommends proactive collaboration between companies and the government to cultivate demand for low carbon products.

The study also suggests actions for ‘supply push’ and ‘demand pull’ to be taken by governments and business. For providing a supply push, it recommends access to natural gas/syngas, demonstration plants, large-scale green finance, emissions penalty on production, and transition support for small-scale plants on the supply side. On the demand side, it suggests green product standards, corporate buyers’ clubs, and public procurement.

The findings of the study were presented in a webinar at TERI on Wednesday, followed by a panel discussion with the stakeholders that delved into the huge potential that green hydrogen had in bringing sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint of India’s iron and steel industry. Reducing variability in renewable energy technologies to increase the operational hours of electrolysis was also discussed amongst industry leaders.

With stakeholder cooperation, governmental push for research and development, along with policy initiatives promoting green steel production, India’s efforts to decarbonise this hard-to-abate sector can become a reality, the panelists agreed.

In his recent Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission, which aims to make India a global hub for the production and export of green hydrogen.

According to him, India’s iron and steel sector is set to be the largest consumer of green hydrogen, making it an important driver of the hydrogen economy being planned at present. The release of TERI’s study is thus a timely one.

One Year On, Vedanta Emerges as Top Buyer

On GTAM Market of IEX

Indian Energy Exchange, (IEX) celebrated the first anniversary of the start of trading on its its Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) with a special conference.

IEX informs us that the GTAM has cumulatively traded 2744 MU of renewable energy in its first year comprising of 1267 MU volume in the solar segment and 1477 MU in the non-solar segment. The market discovered Rs 3.75 per unit as the avg price in first year with avg solar price at Rs 3.48 per unit and average non solar price at Rs 4.06 per unit.

The green market has done well to built a strong core of 100 participant in this time. Distribution companies from Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Himachal including RE generators like Choudhary Power, Bhilangana Hydro Power, Amplus Green, Adani solar and MRN Cane Power are a few key participants on the sell side. While the distribution companies like CESC, Haryana, DNH, Tata Power Company and DVC along with Industrial consumers like Vedanta, SAIL, Jindal Steel, Tata Steel etc. are the key participants on the buy side.

In the first year, Power Company Karnataka Limited (PCKL) has emerged as the top seller while Vedanta Limited as the top buyer in the Green Market.

Launched formally by Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh on 1 September’20, the green market offers a key platform for green power generators, and distribution utilities who have surplus renewable energy, to trade among themselves and also support deficit entities to meet their energy and RPO requirements in an integrated way.

Speaking on the occasion, G. Kumar Naik, Chairman, PCKL and Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Energy Department, Government of Karnataka, “The State of Karnataka has proud credentials of being a renewable - rich State with 15 GW of installed capacity base and another 9 GW of green capacity under implementation. PCKL has been successfully leveraging the recently introduced Real- Time Electricity Market and the Green Term - Ahead Market at IEX to sell our surplus renewable energy, as per the Govt of Karnataka’s decision to effectively integrate the renewable energy without undertaking RE power curtailment. This has helped Karnataka to reduce the renewable intermittency as well as strengthen the State’s grid security. These measures have been helping the PCKL/ESCOMs to save the precious financial resources, making it a win- win solution for the State (KPTCL) as well as the renewable energy generators.”

According to C Srinivasa Rao, Joint Managing Director, Telangana Transco, “The, Telangana DISCOMs have sold about 797 MU of solar energy from September 2020 to July 2021. It has helped the State in ensuring financial liquidity while also enabling us to channelize the surplus renewable energy into the market. The green market is an important part in India’s green energy shift and going forward, we will increasingly tap into the market segment”.

S N Goel, Chairman and Managing Director, IEX added that, “The inception of the green market has been a landmark milestone for our nation. Recently, on the eve of 75th Independence Day, the Honorable Prime Minister announced that India aspires to attain energy Independence by the year 2047. The market can play a catalyst role in facilitating our efforts towards achieving energy independence and building a green and sustainable energy economy in the most competitive and efficient manner. The forthcoming introduction of green day-ahead market will evolve the market further. In the mid to long term, gradual shift from PPA to market-based models will build and deepen the markets to next level, paving way for India to meet its ambitious 450 GW green capacity by 2030.”

Green Market: First Year Performance Highlights - Total trade - 2744 MU comprising 1267

MU under Solar & 1477 MU under

Non-solar - Average Price - Rs 3.48 per unit for Solar;

Rs 4.06 per unit for non-Solar - Maximum trade volume in a single day - 153.1 MU on 16 July 2021 - Maximum trade volume in a month - 726

MU in July 2021 - Highest no. of participants in a month - 50 in July 2021 - Top 5 Buyers - Vedanta Limited, Calcutta

Electric Supply Corporation (India) Ltd,

Haryana Power Purchase Centre, DNH

Power Distribution Corporation Ltd &

Bihar State Power Holding Co. Limited. - Top 5 Sellers - Power Company of

Karnataka Ltd, Southern Power

Distribution Company of Telangana

Limited (TSSPDCL), Choudhary Power

Projects Private Ltd, Bhilangana Hydro

Power Ltd and Amplus Green Power Pvt.

Ltd.

Global Solar Installations Reached 138.2 GW in 2020

India’s Emissions Have Dropped by 28% from 2005 Levels: R K Singh

Despite the continued impact of COVID-19, a massive 138.2 GW of solar was installed in 2020, representing an 18% increase compared to 2019, in yet another global annual installation record for the global solar PV sector, finds a new report by SolarPower Europe.

SolarPower Europe, the new EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association), has released its new Global Market Outlook report. The member-led association, which represents organisations active along the whole value chain, aims to shape the regulatory environment and enhance business opportunities for solar power in Europe.

The new report provides market intelligence for the global solar sector for 2020, and forecasts capacity for 2021–2025. The study has found that the global cumulative solar capacity reached 773.2 GW, exceeding three quarters of a terawatt for the first time ever, in 2020. Market projections put the global solar sector comfortably within the Terawatt scale by 2022, and under optimal conditions, reaching 2 TW by 2025.

This was made possible by 138.2 GW of installations in 2020, representing an 18% y-o-y growth, which is a global annual installation record for the sector.

Aristotelis Chantavas, President of SolarPower Europe, said, “Solar’s growth confirmed its dominance among all newly installed power generation technologies, reaching a 39% global share, which means that more than every third power plant installed in 2020 came from solar.”

In 2020, 18 countries added over 1 GW of solar, compared to 17 in 2019, and 11 in 2018, proving that solar is continuing its growth trajectory. The next four years will see more solar installed than previously anticipated, crossing the 200 GW annual installation level by 2022, and reaching 29 markets around the world adding more than 1 GW by 2023, predicts the report.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, said, “We now expect new annual installed capacities to reach 266 GW in 2025 in our medium-ambition scenario. To put this into perspective, only six years ago, in 2015, this was the world’s total installed solar power generation fleet.”

The Global Market Outlook forecasts cumulative grid-connected solar power capacities to reach 1,870 GW by 2025, according to the most likely scenario. Under optimal conditions, the world could operate PV generation plant capacities as large as 2.147 TW by the end of 2025. In the Medium Scenario, it is expected that total global installed PV generation capacity will pass the following milestones over the next 5 years: 900 GW in 2021, 1.1 TW in 2022, 1.3 TW in 2023, 1.6 TW in 2024, and 1.8 TW in 2025.

Michael Schmela, Head of Market Intelligence at SolarPower Europe, commented, “Indeed, by next year we anticipate the global solar market increase by 25% to 203 GW, the first time annual PV installations will cross the 200 GW level. This is particularly impressive considering that crossing the 200 GW threshold in 2022 would occur only five years after the 100 GW level was reached. With COVID-19 vaccination rates increasing, and silicon supply issues resolved, the coming years will be sure to see many solar installation records broken.”

India has already achieved emission reduction of 28% over 2005 levels, against the target of 35% by 2030 committed in its NDC (Nationally determined contributions), which makes India one of the few countries globally that have kept to their Paris Climate Change (COP21) commitments along with an exponential increase in renewable energy capacity, said Union Power and New and Renewable Energy minister Raj Kumar Singh. Considering the pace of development in the energy sector, India is determined to not only achieve, but to exceed its NDC commitments well within the committed time frame, the minister added.

Mr. Singh made these statements while delivering the keynote address at the recently held “INDIA-ISA Energy Transition Dialogue 2021,” organised by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

He added that the key is to allow the regulatory and policy support to keep the sector afloat till the supply-side strengthens, technology develops, and competitive market takes root resulting in a fall in prices, and the industry becomes self-sustainable. It is anticipated that by 2050, 80-85% of India’s overall power capacity will come from renewables, said Singh.

India has already touched 200 GW of peak demand, in addition to reducing emissions by 28% from 2005 levels. The demand had crossed what it was during pre-COVID time and it is expected that electricity demand will continue to rise. This enables space for adding more renewables capacity, but that will call for power system flexibility and introduction of various storage technologies.

While 100 GW of capacity has been installed and operationalised in the country, 50 GW of additional capacity is under installation and another 27 GW is under tendering process. Further, as on 31st July 2021, 38.5% of India’s installed power generation capacity is based on clean renewable energy sources. Presently, India stands at the fourth position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity (fifth in Solar and fourth in Wind energy capacity).

The minister said that an active private sector continued to strengthen the supply side through capacity building exercises. The story is expected to be repeated in the years to come with advanced technologies, such as energy storage and green hydrogen. Dedicated Green Energy Corridors initiated by the MNRE have made it easier for renewable energy developers to avail grid connectivity and evacuate up to 40,000 MW of large-scale renewable energy from renewable energy-rich parts of India, he said.

The Dialogue featured two panel discussions and a presentation by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) on Citizen Centric Energy Transition- India Story. India’s energy transition journey was highlighted in the presentation.

Solar Recycling Is Becoming A Race Against Time

In the last two decades, millions of solar panels have been installed, with an expected lifetime of between 25 and 30 years. That means over the coming years, a trickle of discarded panels will gradually turn into a flood, requiring effective recycling techniques to be in place soon. Solar recycling technologies have their task cut out, needing to cut down module waste as well as the need for new material to build more solar equipment.

A solar panel is a photovoltaic module made of materials such as glass, aluminum, silicon and copper. It uses sunlight as a source of energy to generate direct current electricity. A solar cell is a black mirror-like electrical device that is the key component of a solar panel. Techniques have been researched to maximize the efficiency of recycling solar panels.

Of late, many new technologies for solar recycling have been coming up. Researchers at the state-run Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), for instance, have developed a non-destructive technique to recycle discarded solar panels to create highperformance solar cells. The institute said the new technique can recycle both undamaged and damaged panels to achieve up to 100 percent retrieval rate of glass components. About 80 percent of other materials can be retrieved and recycled into highperformance solar cells.

“Recycling a ton of discarded solar panels has the effect of reducing 1.2 tons of greenhouse gases so this technique is the absolute key to achieve net-zero emissions,” KIER head researcher Lee Jin-seok was quoted as saying. KIER has transferred the technique to HST, a domestic solar energy generating equipment maker, for commercialisation.

Another case is of ROSI Solar, a French startup founded in 2017, which recently announced plans to build a new recycling plant in Grenoble, France. Yun Luo, ROSI’s CEO, has been quoted as saying, the company has developed a process to extract the silver, silicon, and other high-value materials from used panels. The plant should open before the end of 2022 with a contract from Soren, a French trade association.

Soren is also working with a French logistics company called Envie 2E Aquitaine, which will try to find other uses for decommissioned solar panels. If the panels aren’t operational, the company will remove the aluminum frame and glass before passing them along to ROSI to recycle, Luo says.

ROSI focuses on recovering silver and high-purity silicon, since these two materials make up over 60% of a panel’s cost. The company uses a proprietary chemical process on the remaining layers, focusing on removing the tiny silver threads that transmit electricity through a working solar panel.

Despite these technological advancements, recycling in the solar industry is not a widespread practice across the world yet. Only about 10% of panels in the US are recycled since recycling isn’t mandated by federal regulations, and recycling the devices is currently much more expensive than just discarding them. But the materials in solar panels coming offline each year could be worth an estimated $2 billion by 2050. Or higher, if commodity metal prices move higher.

India is among the top five countries producing solar photovoltaic power and will continue to further improve its position in the future. The government has already set its sights to produce 350 GW of solar power by 2030. Currently, there are no laws that mandate safe disposal of solar energy waste unlike Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe.

Under this directive, EU regulations require 85% collection and 80% recycling of the materials used in PV panels, which was extended to solar products in 2012. The solar cells manufacturers are bound by law to fulfil specific legal requirements and recycling standards in order to make sure that solar panels do not become a burden to the environment.

Similarly, recycling needs to be accorded priority in India as well to avoid land pollution from discarded panels. A not-for-profit organisation can formulate a roadmap to pave the way for a safe end of life management using low-cost recycling equipment and ensure they are used for re-powering. About 240,000 MW of new panels can be re-produced without extracting new materials. It will result in the overall CO2 abatement of 360 billion tons in their lifetime, as per some estimates.

Consultancy Sofies India, for instance, has joined the Solar Waste Action Plan (SWAP) pilot to investigate the feasibility of recycling photovoltaic solar panels. The innovative project, funded by Netherlands-based Signify Foundation and Doen Foundation, aims to enhance solar panel recycling practices in India. It wants to boost daily capacity to at least 150 tonnes of PV panel waste by May 2022. An important SWAP milestone was setting up a pilot plant in Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu with a daily processing capacity of 2.5 tonnes. The site is operated by recycling firm Poseidon Solar and became fully operational in September.

About 8 million metric tons of decommissioned solar panels could accumulate globally by 2030. By 2050, that number could reach 80 million. Recycling these panels could provide a new source for materials that would otherwise need to be mined (potentially under unsafe or exploitative working conditions), making solar a more sustainable piece of the clean-energy puzzle.

Like the national scrappage policy for vehicles, which was announced recently, and aims to reduce waste, create jobs, and recycle massively in the automotive sector, India will do well to be more proactive on the solar recycling front too, by laying the law for disposal and recycling early on.

Reflections on World EV Day

September 9, or World EV day, went by with a flurry of activities to commemorate the same. This writer too spent time moderating panelists at an event to commemorate progress, followed up by ‘fireside chat’ with an Electric Bus specialist for India.

What came out really strongly was the overall optimism across the EV space, and not because of specific government moves, or other such actions, but because of the universal belief that the EV transition is finally looking inevitable.

That word needs to be used carefully, as we have repeatedly seen, when it came to the same ‘inevitable’ need to use less coal for power, or less fertilisers for agriculture and so on. But a few things stand out in the electric vehicle (EV) driven transition that is well and truly underway, even though speed bumps abound.

For one, it is noticeable that we have a slew of startups and truly smart founders trying to find answers to the challenges in front of us. Be it about range anxiety, costs, accessibility, actual usage, or battery chemistry for the long term, the sheer range of firms and talent behind these problems is impressive.

It’s The Future, Accept it

What is even better is that vindication has come from investors willing to back these founders vision, and support a period when little may move, but much would have been achieved.

This quote from Awadhesh Jha, Vice President, Fortum Charge & Drive India Pvt. Ltd, captures it well.

“India is pushing to encourage the use of EVs to reduce the country’s dependence on diesel and petrol as part of a larger effort to cut vehicular emissions in line with commitments it has made under the global climate change pact. The demand for electric vehicles has grown substantially during last one year despite general, economy getting affected by Covid-19. It is fair to say that a transition from petrol and diesel-powered cars to EVs has commenced. EVs in India have now become more relevant than ever and this is evident by the addition of new electric cars. To accelerate the uptake of EVs further, the central government must offer a subsidy to individual buyers of 4-W Passenger Electric Vehicles, making EVs affordable and their manufacturing a viable business for automobile companies. The future of e-mobility in India lies at the convergence of robust charging infrastructure, increased participation by automakers, and successful consumer use cases. The shift to EV mobility is inevitable, and we should do all to hasten its adoption.”

Cooperation Before Competition?

Similarly, what has stood out in the EV transition, and the startups pushing it, is the degree of cooperation we see, as firms realise that going it alone will not move things fast enough for them and the sector. So be it modular batteries that can be used interchangeably, shared charging networks , opening up the source code for key functionalities, we are seeing it all. Frankly, the most noticeable example that one can think off for this level of cooperation from the legacy automotive sector is Volvo’s decision in 1959 to share the invention of the seat belt with the broader sector.

Or hear what Samarth Kholkar & Sandeep Mukherjee, Co-founders BLive, say- “2021 will go down as the year of the EV revolution in history. There’s massive growth in the Indian EV market, led by Electric 2 Wheeler. There are several promising brands in the market that are working on E2W models that withstand all the mobility challenges in India. Companies are also collaborating to address all the pain points in the EV segment. For instance, we recently partnered with Ather Energy to facilitate charging infrastructure in tourist destinations, starting with Goa. These ‘BLive EV Zones’ were launched with complete support from the GTDC to further the adoption of EVs in the state. Moreover, key hospitality players like Club Mahindra, IHCL have also further our efforts to drive EV adoption by leveraging popular tourist spots. As India’s first electric vehicle (EV) experiential platform, we see tremendous potential in the growth of newer formats of retail like multi-brand EV retail platforms. The market will see great demand and action in the upcoming months on the back of supportive government policies that promote clean mobility.”

A Government Agency To Help Them All

In all this, the role for a government backed agency to start with a clean slate and push the cause has also been highlighted, something that has been done by both EESL earlier, and now CESL. A CESL can hurdle over the issues at state government entities, be it legacy issues or financial limitations due to weak balance sheets.

Mahua Acharya, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Convergence Energy Services Limited said “Having an “EV day” says a lot about the changing times, needs, priorities and ambitions of the new generation. While some countries are the largest manufacturers, others such as India present the potential to become the largest users of electric vehicles. The Government has announced several incentives and offered all possible help to foster greater penetration of EVs – and CESL being a central Government entity has the advantage, enthusiasm and commitment to implement these ambitions for the country.”

The New Business Models

We finally end with what Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO at Yulu Bikes, one of the most enthusiastic and aggressive proponent for a shared mobility future powered by EV’s has to say.

“The electric vehicle (EV) industry has gone through various stages in India, it is now growing due to many factors like the increased government policies supporting battery-powered vehicles, increasing petrol prices, the growing awareness toward the environment and stringent emission norms. The electric vehicle (EV) market in India is expected to hit over 63 lakh unit mark per annum by 2025-27. Considering the average Indian purchasing power, India is full to its brim with EV two-wheelers adoption and is fast growing as one of the top markets in the EV ecosystem. Shared mobility is the future of last-mile mobility in India. We plan on expanding our Yulu Miracle fleet from 10,000 to 50,000 units and adding 10,000 more units of recently launched Yulu DEX a custom-designed Electric 2-Wheeler for “short mile” delivery to empower the gig economy by providing affordable lease options is under the pipeline by the end of this year.”

While all this was happening, came the news that EV’s in the past two months have actually overtaken sales of CNG vehicles in one of the largest automotive markets, Delhi. While that trend needs to play out over a far longer period, it’s a welcome sign that strong, pro-EV policies can make an impact, and as the economy recovers, will play out even better in the coming months and years.