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Renewables investment bounces back in India
India Finance
The 2020 decline in investment in India’s renewables programme resulting from the impact of the Covid pandemic has been arrested, according to a briefing note published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Investments in RE are rising – IEEFA states that RE investors committed $6.6 billion in the first four months of 2021, up from $6.4 billion invested in the same period in 2020. IEEFA forecasts that if the trend continues, 2021 investments will surpass last year’s $8.4 billion.
IEEFA believes that the upsurge is caused by rebounding energy demand and a wave of commitments from banks and financial institutions to exit fossil fuel financing. Saurabh Trivedi, co-author of the briefing note and a research analyst at IEEFA, added: “Green bonds have become a key financial
instrument for mobilising cost-effective foreign debt capital into the Indian renewables market. Since 2016 Indian corporates and financial institutions have raised around $14.43bn through green bonds as per Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) data. In 2021 to-date, Indian companies have attracted $4bn in green bonds, already beating the previous record of $3.43bn in cumulative green bond issuance in 2017.” Other factors driving the increase in renewables investments in India include the government’s announcement that it plans to redouble its efforts in renewable energy to secure energy supply and self-reliance.
Corporates in India have also shifted their focus to clean energy to decarbonise their operations. The lending portfolios of Indian financial institutions like State Bank of India (SBI) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC)
now include more renewable energy assets than fossil fuels, a trend which has picked up significantly in the last one to two years, according to the briefing note.
However, there is a warning that despite the positive developments within the Indian sector, investments being made are well short of what is required for the country to meet carbon emissions reductions targets. The country is estimated to require an additional $500 billion in investment in new wind and solar infrastructure, energy storage and grid expansion and modernisation to reach 450GW of capacity by 2030. Today, India is investing between $18 billion and $20 billion in energy generation capacity and a further $20 billion in the grid per annum. The International Energy Council recommends India triple its annual investment in renewable energy to achieve sustainable development goals.
EU Oyster consortium chooses site for innovative hydrogen project
UK Hydrogen economy Grimsby, in the northeast of England, has been chosen as the location for an innovative ‘marinised’ electrolyser project for renewable hydrogen production. The aim of the Oyster project, funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) is to develop and demonstrate an electrolyser system designed to be integrated with offshore wind turbines. The project will also investigate the potential of using pipelines to transport hydrogen to shore.
Renewable hydrogen is rapidly emerging as a key tool in the green transformation, providing a clear green path forward for many sectors that would otherwise be difficult to decarbonise, such as heavy industry and heavy transport. Developing offshore hydrogen production, by utilising electrolysers which only require water and renewable electricity to generate renewable hydrogen, further increase this potential by providing a means of transporting low-cost renewable energy from areas of excellent resource to demand centres.
Reaching the EU Hydrogen Strategy target of 40GW of electrolysers by 2030 is expected to require both onshore and offshore electrolysers. The Oyster project – being undertaken by a consortium of ITM Power, Ørsted, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, and Element Energy – will develop and test a megawatt-scale, fully marinised electrolyser
in a shoreside pilot trial, which will be located in Grimsby. The project will also explore the feasibility and potential of combining an offshore wind turbine directly with an electrolyser and transporting renewable hydrogen to shore. The project is 100% funded by the FCH JU, a public private partnership of the European Commission, which awarded the project € 5 million in January 2021
The OYSTER consortium selected Grimsby because of the region’s strong connection to renewable energy, in particular offshore wind. Grimsby is home to the O&M hub for Ørsted’s UK East Coast operations, including Hornsea One and Hornsea Two, which will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when completed in 2022. Both offshore wind farms use Siemens Gamesa turbines and are fitted with blades manufactured in Hull. The Humber is also home to Gigastack which is developing a blueprint for the deployment of industrial-scale renewable hydrogen from offshore wind. The Gigastack project is led by a separate consortium, consisting of ITM Power, Ørsted, Element Energy and Phillips 66 Ltd.
Due to the high density of energy intensive industries such as refineries, power stations, steel works and glassworks that flank the banks of the Humber, the region is the UK’s largest industrial cluster by carbon dioxide emissions; 12.4MtCO2
/y. Decarbonisation of 6 | September 2021 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
the Humber is vital for the UK’s legally binding net-zero 2050 target as well as the future economy of the Humber, and renewable hydrogen coupled with offshore wind could play a central role in achieving this ambition.
To fully realise the potential of offshore hydrogen production, there is a need for compact electrolysis systems that can withstand harsh offshore environments and have minimal maintenance requirements while still meeting cost and performance targets that will allow production of low-cost hydrogen. This electrolyser system will be designed to be compact, to allow it to be integrated with a single offshore wind turbine, and to follow the turbine’s production profile. Furthermore, the electrolyser system will integrate desalination and water treatment processes, making it possible to use seawater as a feedstock for the electrolysis process.
ITM Power is responsible for the development of the electrolyser system and the electrolyser trials, while Ørsted will lead the offshore deployment analysis, the feasibility study of future physical offshore electrolyser deployments, and support ITM Power in the design of the electrolyser system for marinisation and testing. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Element Energy are providing technical and project management expertise.
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