The Empowered Group will oversee the mission activities, provide guidance, continuously monitor progress, recommend policy interventions and approve mid-course corrections if required
The government is to set up an Empowered Group (EG) headed by Cabinet Secretary for steering and guiding the implementation of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to make India a global manufacturing hub of the clean source of energy.
A flexible and result-oriented governance structure will be created for steering and guiding the implementation of the Mission, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet, the mission document stated.
The Union Cabinet on January 4 approved the mission with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore to make India a global hub for the manufacturing of this clean source of energy and development of a production capacity of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric Tonnes) per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW in the country by 2030.
According to the Mission Document the group will comprise Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, NITI Aayog CEO, and secretaries of various ministries besides departments of scientific and industrial research, promotion of industry and internal trade and experts from the industry. The effective implementation of the mission requires strong coordination among various ministries and departments of central and state governments, industry, institutions, and other stakeholders.
Chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, the EG will oversee the mission activities, provide guidance, continuously monitor progress, recommend policy interventions to be made in furtherance of mission objectives and approve mid-course corrections if required.
A National Green Hydrogen Advisory Group comprising experts from academic and research institutions, industry, and civil society will also be constituted to advise the EG on all science and technology related matters pertaining to the mission.
It will carry out technology gap analysis for various aspects of the value chain and accordingly define broad performance and cost targets based on global benchmarking.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will be the nodal coordinating ministry for the Mission and will undertake overarching policy formulation and programme implementation with an aim to scale up production of green hydrogen, green ammonia and other derivatives and will enable cost reduction. The government has also identified several risk factors which will be dealt with timely action through necessary policy changes to make the National Green Hydrogen Mission a success, it said.
"The success in achieving the outcomes of this mission is dependent on several factors. It will require constant monitoring, indexing, and sufficient flexibility for mid-course corrections. The underlying governance framework will be tasked with risk identification, classification and timely-action through necessary policy changes," according to the mission document.
The mission seeks to minimise various risks through an appropriate mix of financial and non-financial levers, and review mechanisms. These will be monitored regularly by the mission secretariat through regular consultations with stakeholders.
Strategic risks like supply chain disruptions in critical inputs will be dealt with measures like diversification in supply chains.
Diversification of technology options, funding of multiple research and development and pilots, besides collaborative platforms for industry, academia and startups will be prepared to deal with technology disruptions and unforeseen developments.
Steps will also be taken to mitigate operational/project level risks involving water availability, land availability and safety concerns.
The government will take measures like demand creation in identified sectors, planning of renewable energy capacity addition, and "risk sharing framework in procurement, facilitating projects to access FDI, bond markets and MFAs" to avert financial and market risks.