India is advancing efforts to boost renewable energy use even as the world’s third-largest crude oil importer is leading global oil demand growth.
Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s top refiner, plans to replace fossil fuel-made hydrogen with green hydrogen – made from electrolysis – at one of its refineries.
Indian Oil has recently finalized the cost for its green hydrogen plant in the Panipat Refinery & Petrochemical Complex, which will be India’s biggest renewable hydrogen production facility when it is commissioned, which is expected to take place in late 2027.
The state-owned refining giant has picked Larsen & Toubro to build and operate the plant with a capacity to produce 10,000 tons of hydrogen per year.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) isn’t new to building hydrogen electrolyzers—the company commissioned in March its first India-made electrolyzer at the Green Hydrogen Plant at A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex in Hazira, in the western state of Gujarat.
The green hydrogen produced at the plant will replace the hydrogen currently used for Panipat’s refinery operations, helping Indian Oil’s decarbonization efforts.
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Indian Oil’s green hydrogen project is in line with India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, the state-run oil firm said.
The mission aims “To make India the Global Hub for production, usage and export of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives.”
Projects part of the mission will lead to significant decarbonization of the economy, reduced dependence on fossil fuel imports, and enable India to assume technology and market leadership in green hydrogen, the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy says.
India is supporting pilot projects to use green hydrogen in several crucial sectors, consuming a lot of petroleum-based fuels such as long-range heavy mobility, ports and shipping, and steelmaking, and to start replacing biomass with renewable hydrogen.
As part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Indian government launched in March five pilot projects for using hydrogen in buses and trucks. India looks to become a global leader in green hydrogen production and utilization, New and Renewable Energy Minister, Pralhad Joshi, said at the time.
India has a target to produce 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen annually by 2030, install 60 GW-100 GW of electrolyzer capacity, and add 125 GW of renewable energy capacity dedicated to hydrogen production, the minister noted.
These initiatives are expected to help cut carbon emissions, save money from imports, and attract investments, India says.
India is set to see a surge in power demand and renewable energy build-out in the coming years and decades and could assert itself as a clean energy powerhouse if it boosts investments, U.S.-based clean energy think tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) said in a report on last month.
Despite the growth so far and the enormous opportunity ahead, India accounts for just 4% of global clean energy investment, according to the RMI report.
“If the finance catches up, India’s transition could save more emissions by midcentury than Europe and North America combined — while charting the way for emerging economies around the world,” the research noted.
India is at risk of missing its ambitious clean energy targets if it doesn’t significantly boost investment in renewable energy, which is only a fifth of what is required annually through 2030, clean energy think tank Ember said earlier this year.
All this doesn’t mean that India’s oil demand is vanishing, on the contrary.
India is overtaking China as the world’s biggest oil demand growth driver in a momentous shift in the oil market, where China dominated growth in the past two and a half decades.
While India’s growth rate is ahead of China’s, Indian volumes aren’t anywhere near the Chinese boom in consumption that began in the early 2000s. And they likely will never be.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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