Here are the winners of India’s first green hydrogen and electrolyser subsidy auctions

Reliance wins big in both tenders, with limited success for Adani

Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India on 25th July 2020.
Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India on 25th July 2020.Photo: Shutterstock

The results of India’s first auctions for green hydrogen and electrolyser subsidies have been published, with industrial conglomerate Reliance a big winner in both tenders.

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The green hydrogen auction, which offered a per-kilogram maximum of 50 rupees ($0.60) in the first year, 40 rupees in the second, and 30 rupees in the third, awarded subsidies to eight companies (see table below) out of thirteen bidders.

Mumbai-based Avaada, Singapore-headquartered Sembcorp and GH4India — a joint venture between Indian Oil, ReNew, and Larsen & Toubro — all lost out on their bids, which applied for subsidies in all three years.

In addition, two companies, UPL Limited and CESC Projects Limited, were included in the list of winners despite not bidding for any subsidies at all.

This bulked up the awarded production capacity to a total of 412,000 tonnes of H2 per year, just below the cap of 450,000 tonnes per year.
Winners of green hydrogen production subsidies in India’s first auction

Company

Bid capacity (tonnes/year)

Requested subsidy for year 1 (rupees/kg)

Requested subsidy for year 2 (rupees/kg)

Requested subsidy for year 3 (rupees/kg)

Average incentive (rupees/kg)

Allocated production capacity (tonnes/year)

Reliance Green Hydrogen and Green Chemicals Limited

90,000

0.03

28.32

28.35

18.9

90,000

Welspun New Energy Limited

20,000

0

30

30

20

20,000

HHP Two Private Limited

75,000

50

25.13

0

24.0433

75,000

Torrent Power Limited

18,000

25

34.1

27.57

28.89

18,000

ACME Cleantech Solutions Private Limited

90,000

50

40

0

30

90,000

Greenko ZeroC Private Limited

90,000

50

40

0

30

90,000

JSW Neo Energy Limited

10,000

50

40

14

34.6667

6,500

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited*

2,000

30

30

30

30

2,000

*The only bidder for subsidies ringfenced for “biomass-based pathways”
Source: Solar Energy Corporation of India
India is aiming to produce five million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030, with the cost of production reaching parity with grey H2 made from unabated natural gas in the latter half of this decade.

Meanwhile, the auction for electrolyser manufacturing subsidies, which offered a maximum incentive of 4,440 rupees per kilowatt of capacity sold, assuming local content and domestic sales conditions are met, was even more competitive.

Out of 21 bids — 14 for any technology and seven specifically for Indian-developed electrolysers — only eight winners were announced (see table below), meeting the cap of 1.5GW of manufacturing capacity.

While Adani, the industrial conglomerate founded by billionaire Gautam Adani, had bid in capacity for both tranches, it only secured partial subsidy for the latter.

Winners of electrolyser manufacturing capacity in India’s first auction

Company

Bid manufacturing capacity (MW/year)

Awarded manufacturing capacity (MW/year)

Maximum incentive allocation (million rupees/year)

Reliance Electrolyser Manufacturing Limited

300

300

4,440

Ohmium Operations Private Limited

137

137

2,027.6

John Cockerill Greenko Hydrogen Solutions Private Limited

300

300

4,440

Advait Infratech Limited (consortium with Rajesh Power Service Private Limited)

100

100

148

Jindal India Limited

300

300

4,440

L&T Electrolysers Limited

300

63

932.4

Homihydrogen Private Limited*

101.5

101.5

1,502.2

Adani New Industries Limited*

300

198.5

2,937.8

*Bid for subsidies ringfenced for Indian-developed technology
Source: Solar Energy Corporation India

US-based Ohmium already has a 500MW electrolyser factory in operation in India, with plans to expand this to 2GW.

Belgian manufacturer John Cockerill also aims to build a 2GW plant in the country, in partnership with one of India’s biggest clean-energy developers, Greenko; while Indian conglomerate L&T (Larsen and Toubro) has agreements in place to use the technology of two European electrolyser makers — France’s McPhy and Norway’s HydrogenPro.

Fellow Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries — run by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani — plans to build a 1GW factory producing low-cost electrolysers designed by Denmark’s Stiesdal.

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Published 15 January 2024, 10:59Updated 16 January 2024, 13:49