Daily News

5 January 2023

News & Current Affairs Courses Important Articles & Blogs Practice Answer Writing Optional Subjects Tests & Quizzes IAS Forum Daily MCQ Test Practice Videos Syllabus testimonial Information, Tips & FAQs Resources
img1

05-01-2023

12:00:AM

1387 Views


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.











Comments


Login To Comment

Recent Comments

Daily MCQ Test Practice