Overview of The Hydrogen Economy – New Delhi Dialogue 2021

The Inauguration Edition of Hydrogen Roundtable titled ‘The Hydrogen Economy-New Delhi Dialogue 2021’ took place virtually on 15th April, 2021. The Hydrogen Roundtable is the first of its kind conference on Hydrogen Ecosystem. As the world chases its international climate commitments and takes steps to counter climate change, Hydrogen is gaining increasing importance as a source to bridge energy gaps and also as a standalone source to conventional fuels.

The roundtable conference was organised by The Energy Forum (TEF), an independent Think-Tank and the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), working under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.

The purpose of roundtable was to discuss the emerging hydrogen ecosystems and explore opportunities for collaboration, cooperation and coalition. The high-level Ministerial Session of the conference was led by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of MoPNG.

The objective of the Roundtable is to understand the progress of Hydrogen ecosystem across continents and contribute to creating synchrony among the thinktanks,  Governments and the industry to join forces for developing innovative and sustainable technologies at attractive costs.

Around 25 panelists from 15 countries such as UAE, Denmark, US took part in the conference.

Key Takeaways from the Conference:

India to spend USD 200 Million on Hydrogen

• India is set to spend USD 200 Million over the next 5-7 years for promoting the use of Hydrogen in India. It has requested State-run Oil and Gas companies to set up 7 Hydrogen Pilot Plants by the end of 2021.

US, India to launch Hydrogen Task Force

During the Roundtable, US Deputy Secretary of Energy, David M Turk announced that India and the US will launch a Hydrogen Task Force under the US-India Strategy Energy Partnership.

• The Task Force will help in scaling up technologies to produce hydrogen from renewable energy and fossil fuel sources.
• It will also help in bringing down the cost of deployment for enhanced energy security and resiliency.

India H2 Alliance (IH2A)

Reliance Industries and many other global energy and industrial firms have come together to form a new energy transition coalition called the ‘India H2 Alliance (IH2A)’. The alliance will work towards commercialising hydrogen technologies to build net-zero carbon energy pathways in India.

The alliance is set to work on 5 areas

1. Develop a national hydrogen policy and roadmap 2021-30
2. Create a national H2 taskforce and mission in a public-private partnership format
3. To identify nationally large H2 demonstration-stage projects
4. Help in creating National India H2 fund
5. Creating hydrogen-linked capacity covering hydrogen production, storage and distribution, industrial use-cases, transport use-cases and standards.

Source –

• Inaugural Edition of The Hydrogen Economy – New Delhi Dialogue 2021 – PIB