Suresh Agasti, Head – Green Hydrogen, TKIL Industries, is a distinguished leader with over 20 years of experience across energy, infrastructure, engineering, manufacturing and emerging clean-energy sectors. In his role, he drives strategy, transformation and new business initiatives, with a focus on green hydrogen and sustainable technologies.
His career spans nuclear power, renewable energy, industrial engineering and digital transformation, giving him a distinctive blend of technical and business expertise. Known for turning complex challenges into growth opportunities, Suresh combines strategic thinking, innovation and execution to build businesses, strengthen organizations and create lasting value.
This article explores the power challenge quietly taking shape behind India’s green hydrogen ambition. Renewable capacity alone may not be enough to scale production. The bigger question is whether India can rethink how power reaches hydrogen projects and whether new approaches could change the equation.
Green hydrogen is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of the global energy transition. As countries accelerate decarbonisation efforts, hydrogen produced from renewable electricity is expected to play a pivotal role in hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, fertilizers, refining, and heavy mobility.
India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched with an ambitious target of producing 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen annually by 2030, will require massive expansion of renewable energy capacity and associated infrastructure. However, an often under-discussed challenge is the electrical infrastructure required to deliver renewable power to hydrogen production facilities.
Traditional green hydrogen production relies on large renewable power plants connected through transmission and distribution (T&D) networks to electrolyzer systems. While technically viable, this approach introduces significant infrastructure requirements, grid complexities, and energy losses.
Electrolysis is an energy-intensive process. Producing 1 kilogram of green hydrogen typically requires 50–55 kWh of electricity, depending on the electrolyzer technology and system efficiency.
To put this into perspective:
For India’s 5 MMT target, this translates to roughly 250–275 TWh of additional renewable electricity demand, equivalent to installing 120–150 GW of new solar or wind capacity.
However, generation is only part of the equation—the temporal mismatch between renewable energy availability and hydrogen plant operation creates further complications.
One of the most critical yet under-discussed challenges in green hydrogen projects is renewable energy (RE) banking.
What is the issue?
Electrolysers ideally require high plant load factors (PLF) for economic viability, while renewable energy—especially solar and wind—is intermittent. To bridge this mismatch, developers rely on banking mechanisms, where surplus energy injected into the grid can be withdrawn later.
Emerging challenges:
Impact on hydrogen economics:
The Growing Need for Grid Storage Infrastructure
To overcome intermittency and reduce dependence on banking, green hydrogen projects increasingly require firm renewable power (RE-RTC: Round-The-Clock Renewable Energy).
Supplying consistent power to electrolyzers requires:
Key implications for the power sector:
1. Massive Storage Capacity Addition
India will need significant storage capacity to support:
This introduces additional capital expenditure and operational complexity.
2. Increased Cost of Hydrogen Production
Storage systems add to the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), which directly impacts hydrogen production cost.
3. Grid Stress and Complexity
Large-scale storage integration leads to:
The challenge also extends to power delivery infrastructure, including:
These infrastructure requirements can significantly increase project costs and development timelines.
Green hydrogen projects are often envisioned at gigawatt-scale renewable energy hubs, typically located in resource-rich regions such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Ladakh. However, connecting these sites to hydrogen production facilities involves multiple challenges.
1. Transmission Infrastructure Expansion
Large renewable plants must connect to the national grid or dedicated hydrogen production facilities through high-voltage transmission lines. The development of such infrastructure requires:
Transmission expansion is already a major challenge for India’s renewable energy sector.
2. Transmission and Distribution Losses
Electricity transmission inevitably results in energy losses. In India, T&D losses typically range between 15–20%, though large utility-scale projects can operate with somewhat lower losses.
When renewable power is transmitted over long distances before reaching electrolyzers, these losses translate into higher energy requirements and increased hydrogen production costs.
3. Grid Stability and Load Dynamics
Electrolyzers behave as large dynamic electrical loads. When integrated with intermittent renewable power sources, they can create operational challenges such as:
Managing these loads often requires sophisticated power electronics, energy storage systems, and grid management strategies.
Given the combined challenges of:
The industry is increasingly exploring distributed hydrogen production models. Instead of transporting electricity to centralized electrolyzer facilities, hydrogen can be produced closer to the renewable energy source or even directly at the point of solar capture.
Distributed production offers several advantages:
This approach aligns well with the evolving concept of energy decentralization, where energy carriers are produced and consumed locally.
Direct solar-to-hydrogen technologies represent a fundamental shift,
Instead of:
Solar → Electricity → Transmission → Electrolysis → Hydrogen
The process becomes:
Solar → Hydrogen
This eliminates:
SoHHytec’s direct sun-to-hydrogen technology represents a novel approach where solar radiation is concentrated and used within a proprietary integrated system to produce hydrogen from water.
Key characteristics of this technology include:
1. Elimination of Transmission Infrastructure
Since hydrogen is produced directly at the solar capture site, the need for large transmission networks and substations is significantly reduced.
This can be particularly advantageous for remote solar-rich regions, where building transmission infrastructure can be expensive and time-consuming.
2. Reduced Energy Conversion Losses
Traditional hydrogen production involves multiple energy conversion stages:
Each stage introduces efficiency losses.
Direct solar-to-hydrogen systems reduce these intermediate steps, potentially improving overall system efficiency.
3. Modular and Decentralized Deployment
Direct hydrogen production systems can be deployed in modular units, enabling hydrogen generation closer to end-use applications such as:
This decentralized model reduces dependency on centralized energy infrastructure.
India’s green hydrogen ambitions require not only large renewable energy capacity but also innovative approaches to energy conversion and infrastructure optimisation.
While conventional electrolyzer-based hydrogen production will continue to dominate in the near term, emerging technologies like direct solar-to-hydrogen systems have the potential to redefine the future architecture of hydrogen production.
For a country like India—with vast solar resources and expanding industrial demand—such technologies could unlock new pathways for cost-effective, scalable, and decentralized hydrogen production.
As the hydrogen economy evolves, collaboration between power utilities, technology developers, EPC companies, and policymakers will be essential to accelerate innovation and deployment.
Ultimately, the transition from electrons to molecules will require not only infrastructure expansion but also rethinking how energy is produced, converted, and delivered.
Direct solar-to-hydrogen technologies represent one such bold step toward a more efficient and resilient energy future.
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