LEH/NEW DELHI: Manohar Lal Union Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs, flagged-off the fleet of green hydrogen buses of NTPC at Leh in the presence of senior officials of Ministry of Power, Leh Administration and NTPC.  

After the flag-off, Hon’ble Minister travelled 12 km in one of the H2 buses from the H2 filling station to the Leh airport. 

Minister congratulated NTPC for its unique contribution to the energy security and decarbonisation efforts  ofthe country through adoption of hydrogen technologies at various fronts like mobility, blending with PNG, green methanol and its overall thrust on RE. 

The Green Hydrogen Mobility Project at Lehcomprises in-situ 1.7MW solar plant, Green hydrogen filling station of capacity 80 kg/day and 5 hydrogen intra-city buses. Each bus can cover 300 km per single filling of hydrogen of 25 kg.  This is also the world’s highest altitude (3650m MSL) Green Hydrogen Mobility Project that is designed to operate in low density air, sub-zero temperature and can fill hydrogen at 350 bar pressure.

This station shall mitigate the carbon emissions of approx. 350 MT/year and contribute 230 MT/year of pure oxygen into the atmosphere which is equal to planting of approx. 13000 trees. 

Potential of green hydrogen mobility solution in Ladakhis very strong considering the high solar irradiance  with low temperature, a sweet spot for producing the solar power and green hydrogen efficiently. Production and utilisation of this green fuel at these locations would avoid the fossil fuel logistics and make the locations self-sufficient in terms of energy requirement.

NTPC Limited, India’s largest integrated power utility under the Ministry of Power, has been a crusader in making efforts to meet the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of achieving Net Zero Target by 2070.  It is setting up more hydrogen mobility projects across India in addition to deployment of various green hydrogen technologies, rapidly scaling up of RE capacity including setting up of  hydrogen hub in Andhra Pradesh.