Shreya Reddy, MS '23
Graduate Fellow,
WRI India
This summer I had an opportunity to work with World Resources Institute (WRI) India and it has been a captivating experience. WRI India is a research organisation that works closely with the government and other stakeholders in the country to drive on-ground transformative change specifically in the following areas: climate, energy and sustainable urban development. As a research intern in the Hydrogen team, my work has been focused on supply chain assessment of electrolyzers for Green Hydrogen production.
As the world continues its search for cleaner and more sustainable energy sources, hydrogen is rapidly emerging as the most promising option for cross-sectoral decarbonisation including heat-intensive industries, medium-to-heavy mobility, and power. At least 43 countries have now set up or are setting up strategies or roadmaps for a hydrogen economy, to accelerate the transition. Given this growing support, global supply and demand for hydrogen, particularly green hydrogen (hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using renewable electricity) is expected to witness tremendous growth. Availability of commercially operable electrolysis technologies will act as a backbone of green hydrogen deployment across various sectors. However, the current global electrolyzer manufacturing sector is exposed to a range of supply chain risks which can impede the uptake of green hydrogen and also cause considerable fluctuations in the cost of production. For India, this current impetus surrounding the hydrogen transition fits well within the context of a low-carbon economy, energy security, and the larger economic development ambition of the nation.
The past few weeks, my work has been focussed on mapping the global and domestic supply chain for electrolyzer manufacturing. This involved looking at individual supply chains of various raw materials required for manufacturing and estimating their current and future criticality. This was carried out by assessing various aspects including resource location and ownership, global production, demand, and trade, potential supply chain risks and opportunities. This assessment aims to provide an understanding of the opportunity available in the electrolyzer manufacturing space, a view of the most valuable and fragile parts of the value chain, and India’s competitive advantages and disadvantages which can be built upon to catalyse the domestic electrolyzer manufacturing sector and to implement relevant policies and incentives. In addition, I have also been working with the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy in the country to develop regulations and standards with respect to green hydrogen production, storage and transport. I am also very excited to be a part of the QUAD meet on regulations and standards later this week. Overall, working for an organisation that has the ability to impact change at a large scale has been an invaluable learning experience. I am very grateful to WRI and Stanford’s Sustainable Finance Initiative for this opportunity.
