LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, April 25: Additional chief secretary of Jharkhand’s energy department Avinash Kumar expressed his commitment to ensure energy security in the state.
He was addressing a stakeholder consultation ‘Developing Green Hydrogen Ecosystem for Jharkhand’. It was jointly organised by the Task Force on Green Hydrogen Mission, Government of Jharkhand and Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) in association with Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Tata Steel today.
The main objective of the consultation was to sensitise the key stakeholders about the challenges and prospects of green hydrogen and bring their solution-driven perspectives and support in Jharkhand. This consultation witnessed participation from top officials from the government department and agencies and leaders from major industries, public sector undertakings, business associations, research think tanks and techno-solutions providers from India and Jharkhand.
“The state government is committed to ensure energy security in the state and accordingly cleaner sources of energy have been prioritised. As a form of clean energy, hydrogen is the future. Green hydrogen is considered the next big thing to fulfil the net-zero ambitions and climate related goals in India and Jharkhand. As per the mandates of the National Green Hydrogen Mission and net-zero scenarios, we are also exploring its huge potential in the state to bring its economic advantages and environmental co-benefits in the state,” the additional chief secretary said.
Speaking on the occasion, a retired IFS and chairman of Task Force on Green Energy Hydrogen Mission A.K. Rastogi shared the initiative taken by him in this direction.
“Jharkhand is primarily an industrialised state with a strong presence of industries of iron-steel, transport vehicles, cement and others. Broadly these sectors are considered as hard to abate in terms of the decarbonisation process, where the role of low carbon energy and technologies is crucial. This requires a holistic approach in presenting technical know-how, infrastructure support and ecosystem change. As per the mandates set by Government of Jharkhand, the task force has started conducting consultations and workshops with key stakeholders to prepare a repository of information in light of the best practices to create an action plan for tapping green hydrogen in the state,” he said.
For achieving the net-zero scenarios, the Government of India launched a National Green Hydrogen Mission in 2022 and subsequently announced Green Hydrogen Policy. As a part of the mandates, the Government of Jharkhand has formed a ‘Task Force on Green Hydrogen Mission’ in March 2023 to assess the current scenario of hydrogen energy, best practices from around the globe, its applicability and suitability for the state and accordingly create a roadmap for implementing the mission in Jharkhand.
