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    1. Microgrids

    India's NTPC building Hydrogen-based Microgrid to decarbonize remote regions

    Dec. 20, 2021
    NTPC is designing the microgrid and selected California-based Bloom Energy to provide a 240-kW solid oxide electrolyser to produce the hydrogen. The electroylzer will be powered from solar energy
    Illustration courtesy Bloom Energy
    Ntpc Be Final 61c09972d4da7

    By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor

    India’s power utility giant NTPC Ltd has awarded a contract for a hydrogen fuel cell-based microgrid project at one of its facilities.

    NTPC is designing the microgrid project configuration. It selected California-based Bloom Energy to provide a 240-kW solid oxide electrolyser to produce the hydrogen.

    Hydrogen itself does not emit carbon, but is not mined naturally. To be considered truly green hydrogen, it must be generated via electrolysers powered by clean energy resources.

    In the India case, the Bloom Energy electrolyser would be located at the NTPC Simadri site and powered by the nearby Floating Solar project.

    “Reducing carbon emissions is the number one priority in the fight against climate change, and green hydrogen will be critical to India’s decarbonization objectives,” said Venkat Venkataraman, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Bloom Energy. “Bloom’s technology is well-positioned to help India transition to a net-zero, hydrogen-powered economy, and we are excited to collaborate with NTPC to bring the country’s first green hydrogen microgrid to life. The powerful combination of Bloom’s high-efficiency electrolyzers and fuel cells enables the highest possible round trip efficiency with green hydrogen for energy storage.”

    The hydrogen produced during sunshine hours would be stored at high pressure and would be electrified using a 50 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. The system would work in a standalone mode from 5 PM to 7 AM.

    India is one of the world’s three worst carbon emitters (after China and the U.S.), but its leadership hopes to transition to carbon neutral by 2070.

    The Simadri hydrogen fuel-cell microgrid project would a front-line pilot to decarbonize remote regions of India such as Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]). 

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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