Leh: Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday inaugurated NTPC’s Green Hydrogen Mobility Project here, featuring a hydrogen-fuelling station, a 1.7 MW solar plant and five fuel cell buses operating at 11,562 feet.
This marks India’s first hydrogen bus deployment on public roads. NTPC targets 60 GW renewable energy capacity by 2032 and leadership in green hydrogen and energy storage, an official spokesperson said.
The minister flagged off the green hydrogen buses of NTPC at a function attended by senior officers and later travelled 12 km in one of the buses from the H2 filling station to the Leh airport.
The project comprises in-situ 1.7 MW solar plant, green hydrogen filling station of capacity 80 kg/day and five hydrogen intra-city buses. Each bus can cover 300 km per single filling of hydrogen of 25 kg, the spokesperson said.
He said this is also the world’s highest altitude (3,650 m MSL) green hydrogen mobility project designed to operate in low density air, sub-zero temperature and can fill hydrogen at 350 bar pressure.
This station will mitigate carbon emissions of approximately 350 MT per year and contribute 230 MT per year of pure oxygen into the atmosphere, which is equal to planting of about 13,000 trees, the spokesperson said.
He said NTPC is setting up more hydrogen mobility projects across India in addition to deployment of various green hydrogen technologies, rapidly scaling up of renewable energy capacity, including setting up of a hydrogen hub in Andhra Pradesh.
The Union minister also visited waste-to-art sculptures at Leh.
