NTPC announces India's largest green H2 plant as country eyes transport pilot

NTPC, India's state-owned power generation company announced plans to build the country's largest green hydrogen project in Andhra Pradesh. The news comes close after officials said the country's road ministry would invite bids to subsidize transport pilot projects that use green hydrogen as fuel.

NTPC Green Energy Ltd (NGEL), the copany's green subsidiry, signed a land lease agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), owned by the state government, to build a green hydrogen hub on 1,200 acres of land close to Pudimadaka.

The company did not disclose cost or timeline for the Pudimadaka Green Hydrogen Hub, but said it would contain facilities for manufacturing and testing electrolyzers and fuel cells, as well as related ancillary industries.

NTPC is eyeing capacity of 1,200 tonnes of green hydrogen per day. Experts say this translates to about 4 GW or more of electrolyzer capacity, as well as renewable energy requirement of at least 8 GW.

In a release, the government said the green hydrogen produced at the hub could be converted into green ammonia or green methanol for export, given its proximity to Visakhapatnam port.

NTPC, which has around 3.4 GW of RE capacity throughout India, is targeting to have 60 GW by 2032. The company already has a project pipeline of 22 GW.

India aims to have 5 million tonnes of annual green H2 production capacity by 2030 as part of the country's National Green Hydrogen Mission, but the government has said this could be doubled to 10 million tonnes, with 70 percent used for export.

Last week, the government disclosed that India would soon invite competitive bids for its Rs 496 crore subsidy to build pilot transport projects that use green hydrogen, alongside guidelines issued by the country's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Officials have said the Union road ministry would issue the bids for the pilots.

India is offering financial assistance to make hydrogen-based mobility plans feasible, as part of a larger plan to establish a green hydrogen ecosystem for the transport sector. The subsidy will be offered to buses, trucks and four-wheelers with either fuel cell-based propulsion of hydrogen-based internal combustion engines. 

The scheme is also looking to support the development of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations in India.

Greening the transport sector will offer India enormous benefit in its plans to become net zero by 2070: Union road minister Nitin Gadkari has said the sector is responsible for around 40 percent of the country's total CO2 emissions.