India’s first Green Hydrogen Fuel Cell bus flagged off from New Delhi’s Kartavya Path

India’s commitment as spelled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the country self-reliant in energy production through a mix of electric mobility, gas-based economy and making green hydrogen on a mission mode, is now becoming a reality. This became evident when Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas flagged off the first Green Hydrogen Fuel Cell bus from Kartavya Path in New Delhi.

The event took place yesterday in the presence of school children, officials and media persons. Addressing them, Puri explained the concept of hydrogen and the benefits of using it as the fuel for the future.

“The fuel cell utilizes hydrogen and air to generate electricity to power the bus and the only by-product from the bus is water therefore making it possibly the most environmentally friendly mode of transportation as compared to conventional buses that run on diesel and petrol. With three times the energy density and the absence of harmful emissions, hydrogen shines as a cleaner, more efficient choice to meet the energy requirements,” he said.

It is interesting to note that the buses powered with hydrogen cells take a few minutes to fully charge itself.

Spelling out Government’s priorities and plans, Puri said emerging fuels like hydrogen and bio-fuels shall account for 25% of global incremental energy demand growth over the next two decades. “With one of the largest synchronous grids in the world, we have achieved ‘One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency’, and would soon be global champion in production and exports of hydrogen and is set to emerge as the hub for green hydrogen.”

“Now with flagging-off the first two hydrogen cell buses, we have set the ball rolling and expect another 15 such buses to ply on Delhi NCR roads by the end of this year,” the Minister stated.

Puri described the use of green hydrogen powered buses as a game changer for the city transport in the country and praised IndianOil for collaborating with Tata Motors for development of indigenous solutions pertaining to fuel cell and hydrogen infrastructure in the country. “Success of this project can catapult India from being net importer of fossil energy to becoming net exporter of clean hydrogen energy,” he observed.

Among others present on the occasion were Rameswar Teli, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas; Pankaj Jain, Secretary, MoP&NG; S.M. Vaidya, Chairman, IndianOil and others.

Teli said hydrogen will be a key player in the transition to a carbon-free economy and will help mitigate climate change. “Today’s launch will certainly revolutionize India’s firm commitment of being a cleaner and greener nation,” he commented.

The 15 fuel cell buses will run on specific routes in the Delhi-NCR and performance data will be gathered and analysed to know their efficiency under Indian conditions. “The buses shall cover a cumulative 3 lakh kilometres to establish the efficacy, efficiency and sustainability of the complete value chain,” Vaidya said.