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05-01-2023

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Table of Contents



  • GS-3 Science and Technology
  • Union Cabinet approves Green Hydrogen Mission: A look at India’s push for the fuel
  • Fact File
  • European Union (EU)


Union Cabinet approves Green Hydrogen Mission: A look at India’s push for the fuel

GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life. 

 

Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved National Green Hydrogen Mission. It will help India to become energy independent. Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) will be responsible for overall coordination and implementation of the Mission. MNRE will formulate the scheme guidelines for implementation of its components.



Background

  • The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of energy.


Aim

  • To make India a Global Hub for production, utilization and export of Green Hydrogen and its derivatives.


Key Features

  • Facilitate demand creation, production, utilization and export of Green Hydrogen.
  • Provide two distinct financial incentive mechanisms – targeting domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and production of Green Hydrogen under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition Programme (SIGHT) component of the Mission. 
  • Support pilot projects in emerging end-use sectors and production pathways.  
  • Identify and develop regions capable of supporting large scale production and/or utilization of Hydrogen as Green Hydrogen Hubs.
  • Develop an enabling policy framework to support establishment of Green Hydrogen ecosystem.   
  • Develop a robust Standards and Regulations framework. 
  • Facilitate a public-private partnership framework for R&D (Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership – SHIP);
  • R&D projects will be goal-oriented, time bound, and suitably scaled up to develop globally competitive technologies.  
  • Undertake a coordinated skill development programme.


Hydrogen as a fuel


  • Hydrogen is the lightest element in the universe and the most abundant.
  • But it exists only in combination with other elements, and has to be extracted from naturally occurring compounds like water (H2O). 
  • It is a clean molecule, but the process of extracting it is energy intensive.
  • At present, 96 per cent of hydrogen today is made directly from fossil fuels – mostly natural gas, followed by coal and then oil. 
  • Hydrogen acts as a chemical energy carrier and can be piped or transported to where it is needed.
  • It stores three times as much energy per unit of mass as conventional petrol and when it burns in air – releasing that stored energy – it simply combines with oxygen to produce water again. 


Challenges

  • Storage: Difficult to store due to its low volumetric energy density.
  • Transportation: Highly flammable when mixed with the smallest amount of air.
  • Leakage: Being the lightest of and simplest of all elements, it is easily lost into the atmosphere.


Types of Hydrogen

  • The sources and processes by which hydrogen is derived are categorised by colour tabs.

[Ref- IE]



Fact File


European Union (EU)


  • The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union), which was signed on February 7, 1992.
  • It is a political and economic union consisting of 27 member states subject to the membership’s obligations and privileges.
  • Every member state is part of the founding treaties of the union and is subjected to binding laws within the common legislative and judicial institutions. 


Brief History 

  • Aim: To end the frequent bloody wars between neighbour states that culminated in the Second World War.
  • In 1950, the European Coal and Steel Community began the uniting of European countries economically and politically to gain lasting peace. 
  • In 1957, the Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) or the ‘Common Market’.
  • In 1985, the Schengen Agreement signed (in Luxemburg) that led most of the European countries towards the abolishment of their national borders, to build a Europe without borders known as the “Schengen Area”.
  • The Agreement was signed initially by the 5 European countries: France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands, in Schengen, a small village in Southern Luxemburg on the river Moselle.
  • In 1986 the Single European Act was signed, which also created the ‘Single Market’.
  • In 1993, the ‘Single Market’ was completed with the four freedoms:
  • Movement of goods
  • Movement of services
  • Movement of people
  • Movement of money
  • 1993: The ‘Maastricht’ Treaty on the European Union went into effect.
  • 1999:  The treaty of Amsterdam was signed, which set the maximum number of Members of the European Parliament.
  • 2000: The euro became the new currency for many European countries.
  • 2009: Following a financial crisis of 2008, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force providing the EU with modern institutions and more efficient working methods.
  • 2013: Croatia became the 28th member to enter the EU.
  • 2020: the United Kingdom officially left the EU, starting the 11-month transition period.

 

Copenhagen criteria

  • The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the European Union. 
  • They were established by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and strengthened by the Madrid European Council in 1995.
  • Countries wishing to join need to have:
  • Stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
  • A functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competition and market forces in the EU;
  • The ability to take on and implement effectively the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.











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