India reveals green hydrogen production goals

ACME Group, an Indian sustainable power giant, which recently set up a green hydrogen facility in Rajasthan, welcomed the news.

“The policy is the first concrete step in the direction of creating a favourable regulatory and enabling environment for the green hydrogen and ammonia sector in India. We specifically welcome the provisions to set up bunkers near ports for the export of green ammonia,” said Manoj K Upadhyay, founder and chairman of ACME Group.

Reducing costs

India’s new green hydrogen and ammonia policy has a lot to do with promoting renewable energy in the country.

A key component of the new policy is that in future green hydrogen/ammonia manufacturers may purchase renewable power from the power exchange or set up renewable energy capacity themselves or through any other developer at any location.

And ports are integral to the process with the plan to set up bunkers for storage of green ammonia for export and use by the shipping industry. The land for this storage will be provided by the respective port authorities at a fee.

The policy grants open access to procure electricity within 15 days of application. The manufacturer can bank its renewable power for 30 days with distribution companies and take it back when required.

To make the price of these new age fuels competitive, India’s new policy document has proposed that India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will issue tenders, based on the ‘demand aggregator’ model.

In order to further reduce the cost of green fuels, inter-state transmission charges for a period of 25 years have been waived for manufacturers. They will also be given connectivity to the grid on a priority basis.

Furthermore, the benefit of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) will be granted to the hydrogen/ammonia manufacturer and the distribution licensee for consumption of renewable power.

Appetiser to main Hydrogen Mission Policy

Some experts remain wary of the new policy though.This new policy is only an enabler, not the main Hydrogen Mission Policy that is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

The main policy it’s hoped will tackle a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electrolyser manufacturing and blending norms for green hydrogen — both of which, have been criticised as missing from the current policy.