Nitin Gadkari: Alternate Energy can help create 50 to 60 lakh jobs

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & highways has reiterated the government's commitment towards alternate energy. Gadkari stated that, Green hydrogen is the "Way forward and the future of India.

Gadkari said that, there are different types of hydrogen, black hydrogen from coal and hydrogen from petroleum products. But my request to all manufacturers is, we need green hydrogen because the govt has a commitment for ecology and environment.

On jobs generation, he stated that, the alternate energy space has potential to create 50 to 60 lakh jobs in India.

On how the adoption of green hydrogen would be in the near term, Nitin Gadkari has given a personal example of his hometown Nagpur, wherein they are selling sewage water to the Maharashtra Govt for power generation, adding that, the most significant thing in green hydrogen is the cost of power.

He also spoke about, methods to reduce the cost of power generation and use of biomass to produce green hydrogen would be the key.

With regards to cost analysis, Gadkari stated that, the cost of electricity would be key to bring down the overall cost. By putting solar on the rooftop and a small windmill, we can reduce the cost of power to less than Rs.2.20 per unit and by which it would be in a position to make the cost of green hydrogen less than $1/kg.

Nitin Gadkari also addressed the need for generators to compress green energy, adding, presently we tend to use diesel for generators, which cost around Rs. 110, in place of that, we can also use bioethanol, which would help in reducing the cost to Rs. 62 to 60.

With technology front, Gadkari has been very optimistic, he has shared a " a new research by the Russian scientist, that has been tested by the Indian oil for three-four months, by which the calorie value of ethanol is the same as petrol.

Presently, with this technology, 1 litre of ethanol is equal to 1 litre of petrol, by which one would get same mileage from both products. This can be a great revolution in the nation. He added.

Furthermore, Gadkari noted that boosting agricultural growth through alternate energy is the key.