Getting to Know Green Hydrogen and Indonesia’s Great Potential

In the global effort to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the Net Zero Emissions target, green hydrogen is now a major focus in the world's clean energy transition. As a country with abundant natural resources, Indonesia is in a very strategic position to take an important role in the future clean energy supply chain.

Green hydrogen is touted as the key to realizing a low-carbon energy mix, because it can be used across sectors from transportation, heavy industry, to electricity generation without producing carbon dioxide emissions. In this context, Indonesia not only has the potential as a user, but also as a producer and exporter of green hydrogen in the Asian region and the world.

Actually, what makes green hydrogen so popular? Let's take a look at the summary of Green Hydrogen!

What is Green Hydrogen?

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced through the process of water electrolysis, which is the separation of water molecules (H₂O) into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) using electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, or water.

Through this process of electrifying water, hydrogen becomes an effective energy carrier with high energy density. As an illustration, a hydrogen-fueled vehicle only takes 3-5 minutes to fully recharge. This is much faster than recharging the battery on an electric vehicle which takes up to 10 hours for home charging.

The term green hydrogen has only been used recently to distinguish other hydrogen that comes from natural gas or coal (gray hydrogen). While there is blue hydrogen if emissions from gray hydrogen are injected back into the ground. There is also hydrogen that is produced with the help of nuclear energy (pink hydrogen).

From this it can be said that green hydrogen is considered the only form of carbon-free hydrogen.

Benefits and Advantages of Green Hydrogen

Green hydrogen has various strategic benefits including:

✅ Zero-Carbon Energy Carrier, Green hydrogen produced from renewable energy can be stored as carbon-free energy.

✅ Long Term Storage Solution, Hydrogen tanks have a larger capacity and are easier to increase in capacity than batteries, and can be used as a source of electrical energy when needed.

✅ Alternative to Diesel Backup Power, more environmentally friendly and suitable for remote areas and as a power backup.

✅ Promising Market Potential, Based on data quoted from plnp_upkendari, the global green hydrogen market could reach USD 90 billion by 2030.

The Huge Potential of Green Hydrogen in Indonesia

Indonesia has tremendous potential to produce green hydrogen on a large scale. With the wealth of renewable energy spread across various regions, quoted from katadata.co.id the technical potential of installed energy capacity for green hydrogen production in Indonesia is estimated to reach more than 38 GW, with the following details:

1. Sumatera Island: 6 GW
2. Jawa Island: 4 GW
3. Kalimantan Island: 7 GW
4. Sulawesi Island: 3 GW
5. Maluku & Papua Island: 16 GW
6. Nusa Tenggara Island: 2 GW

Not only that, according to national energy projections, hydrogen demand in Indonesia is expected to increase significantly after 2030, with an estimate of 2 to 5 million tons per year in 2040. This figure shows the strategic need to start building the foundation of a green hydrogen ecosystem early on, starting from infrastructure, technology, regulations to industry partnerships.

Green hydrogen plays an important role in the decarbonization strategy of key sectors, especially the industrial and heavy transportation sectors. For Indonesia, the use of green hydrogen not only supports the energy transition, but also opens up new economic opportunities based on green technology, increases global competitiveness, and creates clean energy-based jobs.

Green hydrogen is not just an energy technology, but a concrete step towards a clean, independent, and sustainable future for Indonesia. With the synergy of government, industry, and society, Indonesia can play a central role in the world's green energy map.

Data and information sources: katadata.co.id, plnnp_upkendari