Ronita Torcato
HSBC India has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF) to support technological advancements to make green hydrogen more efficient, cost-effective, and scalable. Under these joint ventures, the company will provide grant support of Rs 15 crore (USD $2 million) for innovative projects that will prioritize green hydrogen as a strategic alternate fuel.
Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of the partnerships August 24, 2023, in the presence of teams from IIT Bombay and HSBC including Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Bombay, Prof. Ravindra D. Gudi; Group Chairman, HSBC, Mr. Mark Tucker; CEO, HSBC India, Mr. Hitendra Dave; and Global Head of Philanthropy & Head of Sustainability, HSBC India, Ms. Aloka Majumdar.
As part of the program, IIT Bombay will invite project proposals, which will be evaluated by a steering committee comprising representatives from HSBC India. and academics from multi-disciplinary areas. The committee will select three submissions; depending on the committee’s assessment, the project’s viability, and its commercial readiness, the shortlisted submissions could be incubated at IIT Bombay.
The partnership with IIT Bombay will encourage researchers, scientists, and students to develop breakthrough technologies and solutions that address key challenges in green hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and utilization.
HSBC’s partnership with Shakti will focus on geospatial analysis of industrial clusters in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh that have the potential to produce and use green hydrogen. The project aims to conduct research on policy, technological, and financial solutions that will be relevant to the real-world application of green hydrogen in industrial facilities across key states. An assessment of applicable hydrogen production routes for various applications in the shortlisted clusters, skill building, and worker transition, will be crucial areas of this research.
This partnership will help boost the government’s National Green Hydrogen Mission which provides a roadmap for leveraging alternate sources of energy and focuses on providing policy support towards achieving global leadership in green hydrogen transition.
Speaking on the collaboration, Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay said, “Moving towards sustainable and clean sources of energy is a crucial step in the global fight against climate change. Green Hydrogen – with its applications across industries including transportation – will occupy a vital space in global energy.
I am confident that this partnership between IIT Bombay, HSBC and the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation will accelerate research in this space and facilitate India’s transition towards wide-scale adoption of Green Hydrogen”.
Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Hitendra Dave, CEO, HSBC said, “We are delighted to work with IIT Bombay to foster innovation to make green hydrogen production more scalable and commercially feasible. We believe we have a crucial role in accelerating the development and deployment of green hydrogen technologies and driving the transition to a sustainable and low-carbon energy system”.
According to the National Green Hydrogen Mission, by 2030, India hopes to develop green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 MMT (million metric tons) per annum. This will lead to an addition of renewable energy capacity of about 125 GW in the country and help India reduce carbon dioxide emissions to achieve net zero.