Dr Srikanta K. Panigrahi
Director General and Distinguished Research Fellow, IISD
Indian Policy Maker and Technocrat

Addressing the world leaders at the 76th session of the United States General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that "India is moving towards becoming the world's biggest Green Hydrogen hub. We are answerable to future generations with our decision making"

It is the hydrogen fuel that is created using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. Hydrogen can also be produced by the electrolysis of water, where an electric current breaks water, into hydrogen and oxygen.

If this electric current is produced by a renewable source, for instance, by either Solar PV or a Wind Turbine, then clean hydrogen is produced, which is known as green hydrogen. Also, if renewable energy is used to generate electricity, through the electrolysis of water; then the green hydrogen can be produced, without any harmful emissions.

What makes hydrogen green?
Hydrogen, on Earth, does not appear pure in nature and requires energy to separate. The most common technique is to extract hydrogen from water.This is normally done by using heat and chemical reactions to release hydrogen from organic materials such as fossil fuels.

However, this can be enormously polluting. Worldwide hydrogen production is responsible for CO2 emissions, which are equivalent to that of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined. There is a cleaner way of getting hydrogen, which is, through electrolysis.

Hydrogen atoms form hydrogen molecules and oxygen molecules pair up too. Each can then be bottled up. If the electricity is generated from renewable sources such as solar or wind, the production of hydrogen in this way emits no greenhouse gasses. Also, this is how different shades of hydrogen are created. These include brown hydrogen, gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen, and green hydrogen.

Can it be expensive?
While conventional hydrogen and blue hydrogen cost about $2 per kilogram, green hydrogen costs around twice of that. That price, however, is falling steeply with renewable energy prices and getting cheaper day by day costs to make equipment used for electrolysis, called electrolysers.

An Australian National University report last year estimated Australia could currently produce green hydrogen at about $3.18-3.80 per kg and at $2 per kg by the end of the decade. At that price, it would be cost-competitive with fossil fuels, experts do say.