India approves the National Green Hydrogen Mission: 5 million t per year by 2030, outlay of 19,744 crore rupees

The Indian Cabinet approved on 4 January 2023 the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to reach a production capacity of at least 5 million t of green hydrogen per year by 2030, together with an increase of about 125 GW of renewable capacity. The initial budget is 19,744 crore rupees (1 crore = 10 million rupees).

Funding structure

According to the government release, repeated by legal and trade outlets, the initial pool is divided as follows: 17,490 crore rupees for the SIGHT programme (Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition), 1,466 crore for pilot projects, 400 crore for research and development and 388 crore for other elements of the mission. SIGHT includes two financial incentive mechanisms: one for domestic electrolyser manufacturing, the other for green hydrogen production. The pilots are to cover new application sectors and new production pathways.

Other elements of the mission

The mission provides for designating regions that can handle hydrogen production or use on a large scale as "green hydrogen hubs". For research and development, a public-private partnership, SHIP (Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership), is to be used, in which projects are to be goal-oriented and time-bound. The document also announces a supportive policy framework, a system of standards and regulations, and a coordinated skill development programme. Implementation guidelines for the individual components will be prepared by MNRE.

Expected effects

The government estimates that by 2030 the mission will attract investment exceeding 8 lakh crore rupees (8 trillion rupees), create more than 6 lakh jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 50 million t per year and cut total fossil fuel imports by more than 1 lakh crore rupees.

What the mission is and is not

The mission concerns green hydrogen, that is hydrogen produced mainly by electrolysis powered by renewable energy. In the descriptions of the mission that we reviewed, no separate pathway was singled out for hydrogen from biomass or from biomethane. For readers interested in biogas this has a practical significance: support from this pool will go primarily to electrolysers and renewables-based projects, while programmes devoted to biogas and compressed biogas, such as SATAT and GOBARdhan, remain a separate track.

What this means for Poland and Europe

The scale of the Indian mission and the production incentive scheme for electrolysers show that India wants to build its own hydrogen industry rather than merely import technology. For European equipment manufacturers this means growing competition from local producers in the Asian market, and for hydrogen buyers — a potential, but only future, source of supply, dependent on infrastructure being built.