The climate emergency is a pressing concern that has to be addressed decisively and collectively by all the nations.

Hydrogen Council, a group of leading innovation and technology companies with an umbrella of prominent investors have come along to explore and realize the complete potential of hydrogen energy across various industries in the quest to go net zero. Hydrogen is the only fuel that gives water vapor on combustion and therefore is at the forefront of the global energy transition.

Hydrogen energy is categorized by its many colors. Hydrogen produced using renewable energy is called green hydrogen, the most desired form of hydrogen as it non-polluting thereby accelerating the effort of achieving the net-zero goal. Today, most of the hydrogen produced is using natural gas therefore called grey hydrogen, an undesired and polluting way of obtaining hydrogen. Nevertheless, the projects that have come up recently and are underway have clearly indicated that hydrogen is at the heart of the energy transition, there are also advancements on the technology side that will bring down the cost of hydrogen production over the coming years, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Earthshots aims for a 111, the Hydrogen Shot initiative has envisioned and aimed to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80%, to $1 per 1kilogram 1 decade. This will have tremendous impact in terms of de-carbonization of the energy economy, will also lead to creation of millions of jobs worldwide.

Hydrogen seems to offer abundant opportunities for investment in the future, creation of jobs, a cleaner and greener planet – a promise for a better future.

With a plethora of technologies emerging in the last decade, while some have relatively matured and proven to be of potential, others are still in evolution. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has unquestionably triumphed. As is with any new technology introduction, it follows the law of diffusion innovation and the adoption of the technology by the industry follows the S-curve.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle 2011

According to Gartner’s hype cycle, the Internet of Things (IoT) was expected to become ubiquitous and hit a productivity plateau in a ten-year period from 2011.

Today, the prowess of IIoT has been leveraged across various industries and segments, and the energy industry is no exception. There have been various use cases identified and IIoT solutions applied to improve power plant equipment operating efficiency, thereby avoiding plant downtime and also decreasing accidents. The conventional method of scheduled maintenance is flawed in a way that if done too early, it’s a waste of money, and if done too late, it’s a waste of component life. With the introduction of 5G, IIoT coupled with edge computing has resolved the challenge of latency and given the power to compute at source, thereby giving actionable intelligence and significantly improving the processes and personnel’s occupational safety.

Monitoring of power plant assets is crucial in governing its performance. As renewable energy sources are quite intermittent in nature and have a problem of instantaneous mismatch, being able to monitor times of peak load and peak demand and using energy storage technologies to provide power during peak demand is a complex mechanism. Monitoring equipment efficiency with real-time data and getting prompt actionable insights becomes crucial in a successful power plant operation.

The IIoT has numerous applications in energy generation, transmission, and distribution chain. With grid modernization gaining traction, we are at the junction of a challenge. Although IIoT is becoming more cost-effective over time, it still has a long way to go before reaching economies of scale. IoT is fundamentally about the automation, communication, and networking of devices with embedded intelligence, and it will require a significant investment to bring them into the realm of traditional systems.