Greenko, John Cockerill set up JV for green H2 electrolyzers
Greenko Group has announced that it has set up a joint venture (JV) with Belgium's John Cockerill for electrolyzers as part of its green hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing plans.
The Belgium-based manufacturer of high-capacity alkaline electrolyzers will supply them exclusively to Greenko ZeroC, a unit of Greenko Group. In addition, the group will set up a 1 million tonnes per annum ammonia manufacturing plant for exports that require 2 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyzers.
The fuel can be a game-changer for the energy security of India, which imports 85 percent of its oil and 53 percent of gas requirements. To encourage clean fuels, India is contemplating making it mandatory for fertilizer plants and oil refineries to purchase green hydrogen.
"India has the opportunity to export the lowest-cost clean ammonia in the world," Greenko president and joint managing director Mahesh Kolli said.
"The quantity of hydrogen consumed in India is currently 5-6 mtpa and replacing a quarter of that with green hydrogen will create a nascent domestic market with a supply chain that will create opportunities to substitute at least 3 mtpa of ammonia imports," the companies said in a joint declaration.
"GZC and John Cockerill will combine their strengths to co-operate in all spheres of market evolution for green hydrogen electrolyzers, which converts clean energy into carbon-free hydrogen. They will also innovate technologies to manufacture carbon-negative fuels, hastening the energy transition that companies and countries are undertaking," the statement added.
"This partnership will not only help curtail India's energy imports; it will also facilitate a turnaround to enable energy exports. And it will strengthen India's green hydrogen ambitions as part of a wider renewable energy programme that will see India run the world's largest energy transition programme," Chalamalasetty, Greenko's chief executive officer and managing director stated in the declaration.
"India has abundant natural resources, a large domestic market, and the potential to cater to the growth of this market regionally and globally," Jean-Luc Maurange, John Cockerill's CEO, said in the statement.
