India and Australia have agreed to set up an Australia-India Green Hydrogen Task Force to jointly develop green hydrogen resources.
The Indian and Australian governments finalised the terms of reference of the taskforce, which will advise the two governments on accelerating manufacture and deployment of clean hydrogen, with a focus on hydrogen electrolysers, fuel cells and creating infrastructure and regulations that support these aims.
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“The task force will comprise Australian and Indian experts in renewable hydrogen and report to the Australian-Indian Ministerial Energy Dialogue on the opportunities which are there for Australia and India to cooperate in this important area of renewable hydrogen,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
The announcement of the task force follows discussions between Modi and senior officials of Australian companies on investment opportunities for the two countries, which form half of the four-member Quad security dialogue and have forged closer relations in recent years.
The Indian prime minister’s office said on 23 May that Modi met Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest to discuss Fortescue’s work with Indian companies on green hydrogen. The office said Modi discussed India’s ambitious renewable energy strategy including Delhi’s green hydrogen mission, while Forrest briefed the Indian prime minister on Fortescue Future Industries’ (FFI) plans and projects in India.
Australia recently announced a new funding scheme for hydrogen that aims to subsidise two or three projects totalling 1GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030.
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India announced a National Green Hydrogen Mission in January targeting 5mn t/yr of domestic green hydrogen production by 2030, with the potential to reach 10mn t/yr with the growth of export markets. India’s cabinet approved an initial outlay of 197.44 billion rupees ($2.39bn) for the mission, with much of the funding used to incentivise domestic hydrogen production and electrolyser manufacturing. India plans to grow its installed renewables capacity to 500GW by 2030 from 125GW currently to help meet the government’s target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070.
