Green hydrogen, biofuels will enhance energy security: Hardeep Singh Puri

Mangaluru: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that India has achieved a 19% biofuel blending rate and is set to achieve its target of 20 % ahead of its schedule of October 2025.

“The initial target was 20% blending by 2030. We brought it forward to 2025,” he said while speaking on “energy for survival- security and climate” organised as a part of Mangaluru Lit Fest on Saturday.

He said “Our daily consumption of crude oil for refining purposes has gone up from five million barrels a day to 5.4 million barrels. At the current rates of growth and projection of energy growth, I think it will be six to seven million barrels per day in the coming years. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), India's energy demand is expected to increase and 25% of the growth in energy demand in the world will come from India,” he said.

He emphasised that green hydrogen, biofuels and CBG (Compressed Bio Gas) could enhance energy security by lessening dependence on imported fossil fuels and supporting green energy transition.

The Minister said “we have demonstrated capacity to produce clean solar energy at a low reasonable cost. We have demonstrated we can do it by bringing the cost of 1 megawatt down from 25 cents to 3 cents. Green hydrogen lends itself to success where there is local demand, local production and local consumption. With the implementation of pump storage, I think the green hydrogen story is ready to take off with the target of five million metric tonne production by 2030. The IOCL has floated a tender recently for setting up a green hydrogen plant. There is a need to encourage the government here to set up CBG plants and increase our requirement for gas in the overall energy from 6% to 15%,” he said.

The government has included electrolyzers in the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme. The Green Hydrogen Mission has earmarked Rs 19,700 crore for R& D incentive schemes like PLI. As a result, every electrolyzer manufacturer anywhere in the world is present in India, he explained.

Stating that IMF has projected India would be the fourth largest economy by 2027. By looking at the statistics I think we will be the fourth largest economy much before that. Before the colonial domination of 190 years, our economy's contribution was about 23 to 25% of the global GDP. By the time we became an independent country, that contribution of 25% dwindled down to 3 or 4% of global GDP. When Narendra Modi assumed responsibility, we were broadly categorised amongst the fragile five economies. If our rate of growth remains at the current figures, we will be the third largest economy at the earliest.”

There is no shortage of crude in the world. When prices go up, OPEC chooses to limit the quantity of crude which they make available into the global market. So till a few weeks ago, the total amount of crude being made available was 102 million barrels a day. Brazil has three million barrels a day of production. The United States puts 13 million barrels of crude oil per day on the market. A democratically elected government, not only in India but anywhere in the world cannot afford to have a single day or even the remotest area without energy, he added.