The 6th RD20 Conference, held from 2–6 December 2024 in the bustling city of New Delhi, marked a milestone in the global journey towards a clean energy future. Hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at the India Habitat Centre, the event focused on hydrogen technologies and biofuels, bringing together a distinguished cohort of researchers, policymakers, and industry experts from G20 nations. Launched in 2019 in Tokyo, this was the first RD20 conference hosted outside Japan, establishing a collaborative platform for advancing clean energy technologies on a global scale. RD20 is designed to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration among leading research institutions from G20 countries. Prof Robert Gross, UKERC director & Imperial College London led the UK delegation to the conference. Dr Sibimol Luke, Research Fellow, UCL was part of the UK delegation from UK-HyRES.
In the inaugural session, Mr P K Singh, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) India, said, ‘India intends to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen. The only challenge here is the price of green hydrogen. That is why we all need to work together to bring down the price of green hydrogen’. He is hopeful that India’s 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 is a step in the right direction. Dr William Tumas, Associate Laboratory Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA, addressed the delegates, ‘As leading research institutions, we have already agreed that we need to accelerate innovation through analysis, exchange, and research and development. We can do that together through collaboration and cooperation.’ The inaugural session ended with excitement and anticipation for the coming days of the conference.
The conference kicked off with a technical session on ‘Addressing Technical Barriers to Hydrogen Implementation’, which was led by Dr Pierre Sierre-Combe (CEA) and Mr Mark Ruth (NREL). Scientists from leading research institutes presented cutting-edge research and developments on hydrogen production, storage, and utilisation in their countries and geographies. It was aimed to facilitate a comprehensive discussion on overcoming challenges through collaboration, innovation, and identification of strategies that suit each country’s specific context. The session provided a platform for sharing knowledge and fostering discussions on the barriers to hydrogen implementation worldwide. It highlighted the latest advancements in hydrogen technology, showcasing its critical role in the clean energy transition.
Dr Pierre Serre-Combe emphasised the importance of proposing new task forces to tackle barriers to hydrogen deployment. He focused on life cycle analysis, technical, and economic assessments, for the decarbonisation of energy and industry using hydrogen. Mr Mark Ruth discussed performance demonstration and analytical support to accelerate hydrogen technology commercialisation in the US. Prof Aoife Foley, Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure, University of Manchester & HI-ACT (UK-HyRES sister hub), presented on ‘Hydrogen Integration in the UK for Net-Zero Transformation’. She discussed UK hydrogen strategy and policy priorities, technology and integration issues, and the importance of a whole system approach for energy transition in light of the UK’s net zero ambitions and energy security. She also showed consolidated hydrogen certification schemes around the world and invited more discussions on hydrogen standardisation, gaps, and challenges.
Some of the points that emerged from the discussion in the hydrogen sessions are assessment of assessments, multicriteria decision-making in knowing the availability of capital, market mechanisms, assessing qualities for the energy transition and the methodologies, ensuring energy, social, and environmental justice, understanding knowledge gaps in hydrogen projects, and evaluation of resources like water and supply chain. The discussion also emphasised the importance of diagnostics and prognostics in safety and risk mitigations, the development of hydrogen sensors, the identification of hydrogen implementation projects in G20 countries, and the development of a database to see the duplication of work and missing knowledge from each other.
Dr Jamie Speirs, UKERC & University of Strathclyde, pointed out in the discussion that finding off-takers for hydrogen demonstration projects is a big challenge. There is a need for policy interventions to bridge the huge gap between hydrogen supply and demand. So, mapping the policy and market space to understand the balance of hydrogen production and demand is required. The delegates also discussed hydrogen’s global warming potential, impacts on climate, and the leakage reduction and opportunities for leakage reduction. Another important area of concern was the harmonisation of technology readiness level estimates and how it can be applied and considered in a system of systems. The panel was also excited to explore the opportunities to work together on hydrogen hubs.
Forming task forces and finding volunteers to work on some of the discussed points was another activity in this session. This allowed RD20 members to delve into specific challenges and opportunities in hydrogen research and development, fostering collaboration and innovation. The session ended with food for thought from Dr William Tumas, NREL, to the RD20 delegates to come up with a position for G20 in a few months on where we are in hydrogen in general, in production, in developing infrastructure, and how we are sustaining the progress we have made so far in the hydrogen sector to keep the momentum. This was a fantastic session that provided insights into national and international hydrogen strategies, focusing on strategic discussions about scaling up hydrogen infrastructure and fostering international cooperation.
The conference also had a dedicated closed workshop as part of the hydrogen techno-economics working group. Competitive hydrogen production price is crucial for the widespread adoption of hydrogen, and accurate cost assessment is essential for investment decisions. The purpose of this workshop was to address the challenges of cost evaluation, as different countries use different methodologies and assumptions. Incomparable cost estimates are a large barrier to global collaboration and the global hydrogen market. Dr Sibimol Luke, Research Fellow, UCL, presented her and Prof Paul Dodd’s work on hydrogen techno-economic assessment round-robin results at the TEA harmonisation workshop. The participants were actively involved in comparing the results from different research institutions to understand each other’s methodologies in calculating the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and discussed the structure of the publication they were planning to produce.
The conference concluded with site visits to the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) and TERI Gram, providing participants with a firsthand view of India’s clean energy innovations. These visits underscored the real-world impact of the technologies and research discussed during the conference.
The RD20 2024 Conference was a testament to the global commitment to advancing clean energy innovation. By fostering international collaboration and sharing best practices, the event laid a strong foundation for a sustainable future. As the baton passes to Tsukuba, Japan, for RD20 2025, the momentum gained in New Delhi will continue to inspire efforts to tackle climate challenges and accelerate the clean energy transition. The 6th RD20 Conference was not merely an event; it was a catalyst for global change. By spotlighting hydrogen’s transformative potential and emphasising the importance of collaborative innovation, the conference reaffirmed the pivotal role of research and development in shaping a sustainable and inclusive energy future.
