Without refinery offtake, India will achieve only 13 per cent of the ‘5 mtpa by 2030’ target set by the National Green Hydrogen Mission, says the Indian Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A).
The body calculates that if refineries come out with ‘SECI-style, aggregated procurement’ tender, the country could see an additional demand of 350,000 tonnes of green hydrogen. But even then, India is likely to see only 20 per cent of the Mission’s target — or, 1 mtpa.
Amrit Singh Deo, Secretariat Lead, and Upendra Tripathy, Honorary Global Advisor, IH2A, told businessline that the Alliance would urge the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to get refineries to come out with aggregated tenders for green hydrogen.
Green ammonia
According to Alliance, India has six operating or soon-to-be-commissioned green hydrogen plants with a total capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year, supported by 70 MW of electrolysers. But, after 13 SECI tenders for green ammonia and a few private sector projects, 637,400 tpa of green hydrogen capacity, supported by 1,485 MW of electrolysers, are expected to come up in the next three years.
IH2A reckons that the 13 SECI green ammonia contracts will call for investments of $4.38 billion and result in 770 MW of electrolyser capacity. Calculations by businessline show that to produce a tonne of ammonia, 180 kg of hydrogen is needed. The contracted prices of green ammonia ranges from ₹49.75 per kg (lowest, by IFFCO, Paradeep project) to ₹64.74 a kg (Indorama’s Haldia project). At the lowest price, considering that there is a governemnt subsidy of ₹50 a kg of green hydrogen, the price of green hydrogen works out to $2.90 to $3.25 a kg, depending upon the assumptions of percentage of cost of green hydrogen to the cost of ammonia.
Deo and Tripathy also told businessline that the Alliance feels that it is imperative that the government brings in a ‘green hydrogen purchase obligation’, on the lines of the ‘renewable energy purchase obligation’ (RPO). RPO was a big help in the roll-out of renewable energy in the initial years when wind and solar energy was costly, said Tripathy, who is a former Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Published on September 29, 2025