The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, while inaugurating the 27th Energy Technology Summit in Bengaluru on 12th November 2024, informed that India had achieved the second position in biofuel blending globally. This is indeed a coveted distinction towards our green energy goals.
He also said that through biofuel blending, India could save Rs. 91,000 crore on the import bill and that money could be utilised for the benefit of the agricultural sector. He expressed confidence that India would achieve the target of 20 percent biofuel blending by next year, much ahead of the schedule.
The Minister also informed that India’s energy demand would grow by two and a half times by 2047.
The Minister stated that India would have to double the efforts to achieve the net carbon zero emission target by 2070. Energy security, sustainability and technology innovation should go hand-in-hand to achieve the targets in India’s energy sector, he viewed.
At the three-day-long Energy Technology Summit, which was organised by the Centre for High Technology and Indian Oil Corporation Limited, the Minister also distributed the best energy efficient technology awards for the year 2023-24, which were instituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
3 Lakh Trained Professionals Needed for Gujarat’s Green Hydrogen Production Target
According to Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI), Gujarat will require nearly 3 lakh trained professionals by 2030 in green hydrogen production, storage and allied sectors for attaining its target of producing 3.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. The ambitious target of Gujarat accounts for 70 percent of India’s target of 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen production by 2030.
A paper presented by Dr. Biswajit Roy, Director General of GERMI and Sanjay Kumar Kar, a professor at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, points out the scarcity of skilled manpower as a significant impediment towards Gujarat’s green hydrogen plans. GERMI has called for urgent launching of large scale training programs to address this gap.
However, the state government has allocated land in Kutch and Banaskantha for major companies like Reliance, Adani, and Torrent to establish green hydrogen and ammonia plants.
Dr. Roy suggested incentivising skilling programmes with Aadhaar-based rewards, encouraging refundable deposits and leveraging government institutions to cater to the training targets.
