Transitioning Towards Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities and Challenges For India

Countries with net-zero emission targets are exploring ways to augment hydrogen in their economy for decades. Renewable technologies have been torchbearers of the green initiative at the beginning of the 21st century. Hydrogen can play the same role by the end of the century as the goal-post of going green shifts from merely reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieving net-zero emissions. This review article explores the development of the hydrogen economy in the past decade and the opportunities and challenges it presents for India. This study is conducted in three stages. Academic and gray literature related to the topic is studied in the first two stages. In the third stage, the case for India is developed based on the information gathered in the first two stages. Green hydrogen has relevance in today's energy policy narrative due to its ability to decarbonize 'hard-to-abate' industries. Hydrogen can revamp global energy geopolitics due to the absence of technological dominance by a single or group of countries. India can benefit from its solar PV-based low-cost electricity, huge market potential, cost curtailment experience if it overcomes the barriers of high technology cost, undesirable sunk costs, and lack of public awareness with the help of international collaboration