India aims to become Energy Exporter

On Wednesday, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India, Nitin Gadkari said that India should plan to become a net exporter of energy. Other than this, it should also look for the growth of Hydrogen as a fuel. Nitin Gadkari  in his statement said: "Our focus is to harness the domestic sources of energy to become a net energy exporter from an energy importer." He also flagged off the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Toyota Mirai. To evaluate the performance of Toyota Mirai on the Indian road, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and International Center for Automotive Technology also signed an agreement to conduct a pilot project. Mr. Gadkari further added: "This (Hydrogen) is an indigenous fuel. The import bill of the country is around ₹8 lakh crore, if it continues like this, the import bill will cross ₹25 lakh crore. The economy will be affected if import substitution does not become the norm." Mr. Gadkari also informed that he has requested the Power Ministry for incentives to produce Green Hydrogen. He further said: "They have agreed to waive off transmission duty and some other charges for Green Hydrogen. Industries such as cement can use Green Hydrogen and India hopes to become a country that exports the fuel. This is a deviation from the present situation where we import 80 percent of our fuel needs. There are options of using floating solar panels for making Hydrogen."