Business India ×
 Climate Change

Renewable Energy
Published on: Dec. 8, 2021, 1:11 p.m.
The days of rooftop Hydrogen
  • The idea of ‘rooftop hydrogen’ becomes very, very real

By Business India Editorial

Gone are the days of rooftop solar. In the near future, we are going to see rooftop hydrogen, if we are to believe what the scientific community and industry experts are saying.

Storing solar electricity in batteries has been an expensive proposition, though the sharp fall in battery costs is promising. Since the world is moving swiftly into hydrogen, there is an alternative for the batteries. One could make use of the electricity from the rooftop solar plant to split water right on the roof to produce hydrogen. There are emergent technologies that are making possible photolysis – splitting water directly using sunlight, without the interface of electricity – using photoelectrochemical cells (PEC).

Prof Aravind Kumar Chandiran, who heads the Solar Energy Research Group at IIT Madras, has said that they have developed “a new material” that can be used to split water under sunlight. Prof Mohammed Qureshi of IIT Guwahati has said recently that his team developed a catalyst that, when used as a ‘photoanode’, can split water into hydrogen and oxygen. 

Prof Qureshi feels that it would be too early to comment whether this could be downsized for a rooftop plant, but many others in the academia and industry feel small-sized hydrogen generators will be ubiquitous in the future.

Even if you want to keep aside technologies for splitting water directly from sunlight and look only at conventional electrolysis, there is plenty of evidence to indicate that small-scale hydrogen plants are arriving.

“Fundamental physics says that these are technologies where size does not matter,” says Arne Ballantine, CEO and co-founder of Ohmium, a US-headquartered company that has started producing electrolysers from Bengaluru.

“Yes, the idea of ‘rooftop hydrogen’ becomes very, very real,” Ballantine said, adding, “We are moving past the world of chemical plants where the most efficient way to make hydrogen was with a huge installation.”


Airports

Currently Mumbai, Cochin and 25 other airports are using 100 per cent Green Energy

Airports set green deadline

Published on March 24, 2023, 12:01 p.m.

Currently Mumbai, Cochin and 25 other airports are using 100 per cent Green Energy

Government and Policy

Tamil Nadu is banking high on renewable and green energy

TN plans to make RE share 50 per cent by 2030

Published on March 24, 2023, 11:44 a.m.

Tamil Nadu is banking high on renewable and green energy

Renewable Energy

The bloc has also set a goal for carbon capture of 50 million tonnes by 2030

Global green investment to triple by 2030: EC

Published on March 24, 2023, 11:22 a.m.

The bloc has also set a goal for carbon capture of 50 million tonnes by 2030

E-vehicles

The fundraising would be managed by investment bank Goldman Sachs

Ola to raise $300m for expansion

Published on March 24, 2023, 11:03 a.m.

The fundraising would be managed by investment bank Goldman Sachs

E-MAGAZINE

Agriculture

The introduction of black pepper as an inter-crop in the sopari and coconut orchards, has enabled farmers to cultivate crops simultaneously

Skill Development

In 2020-21, the programme reached over 112,482 girls in urban and rural locations across six states in India, including 10,000 across Delhi

Collaboration

The event brought together stakeholders and changemakers to participate in a series of conversations on global trends and recent developments

Healthcare

The programme will focus on educating children on oral health and building awareness around the dangers of tobacco use