Following the announcement today that the European Investment Bank (EIB) joined the India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) with €1bn ($1.07bn) to support large-scale green hydrogen projects and hubs across the country, we once again ask, can hydrogen power the nation?

Read more: EIB joins India Hydrogen Alliance with €1bn of funding for green hydrogen project

The second session of the Snap Summit turned the focus to how hydrogen can power both the grid and off-grid applications.

Indian-based company, H2E Power has a vision for 24/7 clean, green, affordable, and reliable energy for all. It’s independent power systems for off-grid supply offers a crucial solution to remote regions without access to an electricity distribution system.

Having started the company in 2009, Siddarth Mayur, Managing Director, and CEO of H2E Power, is responsible for commissioning India’s first green hydrogen plant in the North-eastern state of Assam.

Mayur told the summit the main concept behind H2E from day one has been to offer distributed power generation to secure energy at scale, in a package that will aid decarbonisation efforts, although reflecting that there is still work to do to make it economically viable.

He said, “Despite it not yet being affordable, we are working as a company to develop local vendors, local supply chains, and building up volumes. By doing so, we hope the technology will be able to compete with fossil-based technology.

“We are engaged in developing a system that will take our solution to the next level. It will provide a solution that is well suited to India, where people on the ground, in the rural village areas will be able to use the system.”

As India strives to clean up its energy supply, Mayur believes that technology like H2E’s could play a crucial role in driving the country down its green energy path. “We will be able to do something really quite revolutionary,” Mayur claimed, “We will bring reliable access to energy to more and more people. This fits in with the Prime Minister’s plan to make India self-reliant.

“Making energy available on a 24/7 basis is what is really required, which is what our fuel cell based micro-grid can do.”

Despite the huge potential for hydrogen-based power solutions, Mayur accepted there remains to be significant challenges, “I think the Indian Government wants to adopt and promote these new technologies, but the cost is always the biggest driving factor,” he said.

Mayur added, “There is a clear stumbling block in the mass scale implementation of these technologies where there is a gap between a policy push and funding viability.”

Since the Summit, the Indian Government has of course approved a $2bn incentive programme to support its National Hydrogen Mission.

Read more: India approves $2bn incentive plan to boost green hydrogen

Rounding off the session, Mayur told the summit that H2E’s goal is to put a fuel cell into a million homes in the country, “We have the ambition of fitting a million homes with our fuel cell systems, making them energy independent and making homes Net Zero.”