Challenge

In 2019, the combined emissions of India’s energy and industrial sectors represented more than 80% of the country’s total emissions. As such, there is a pressing need to decarbonize by exploring climate technologies. Green hydrogen has been identified as a potential game-changer with sectoral applications in transport (e.g. aviation, maritime, railways) and industry (e.g. steel, chemicals, refineries, etc.), with the challenge of scaling India’s production capacity and making it cost-competitive.

Solution

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched the National Green Hydrogen Mission to spearhead India’s decarbonization efforts through a public-private collaboration model. This involved green hydrogen producers and electrolyser manufacturers such as ACME Cleantech, Greenko ZeroC, Reliance Green, Welspun, Torrent and L&T Electrolyser through a tendering process. The project is expected to enable a green hydrogen production of at least 5 million tonnes per annum by 2030. The project embeds key policy instruments like the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT), providing incentives, tax exemptions and job creation necessary to accelerate the development of green hydrogen.

Impact

India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission is expected to generate investments of more than $95 billion, generate 600,000 jobs and mitigate nearly 50 million tonnes of GHG emissions annually by 2030. Since its launch, major industrial and transport partners have benefited from the incentives and supported the development of hydrogen hubs with shared infrastructure, while countries like Japan and Singapore have contributed to financing hydrogen value chain building in India.