The commissioning of the 25 MWe Green Hydrogen plant and Green Steel offtake at JSW Steel’s Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka, the largest green hydrogen plant by capacity, award of the 124,000 MTPA Green Ammonia SECI tender for supply to the fertilizer sector over a ten-year period (starting in 2028) and public procurement for 10,000 MTPA green hydrogen supply contract awarded by IOCL Panipat refinery (and price discovery) over a three-year supply period; were the key project-related highlights of 2025. These three milestones in the most important domestic industrial offtake sectors – across steel, fertilizer and refineries – indicates the significance of leadership actions and the role of the demand side, to create a green hydrogen economy in India. 

As the only commissioned large-scale (above 20 MW) green hydrogen plant, the JSW green hydrogen plant is the first NHGM SIGHT scheme project to be commissioned and shows India’s progress on green hydrogen use in steel making ahead of Japan (which recently awarded its first Contract-for-Difference (CfD) contract for green hydrogen use for steel making, which will take time to build and commission). This places India efforts on green steel production with green hydrogen ahead of Japan. The Green Hydrogen plant run by JSW Energy supplies green hydrogen to the JSW Steel plant, and is the single largest co-located green hydrogen production and offtake, in the country. 

In addition to the JSW green hydrogen plant, there are two other commissioned industrial projects with smaller capacities (BPCL’s 10 MWe plant at Bina, and GAIL’s 5 MWe plant at Vijainagar, both in Madhya Pradesh), and two industrial manufacturing plants using green hydrogen (Asahi Glass plant at Chittorgarh, and Rockman Industries plant at Tirupati).

Despite these achievement, significant challenges remain to be addressed. Foremost amongst this is the need for concerted policy actions and demand side support to ensure more offtake agreements are signed and green hydrogen projects achieve Financial Investment Decision (FID)-stage, within the next 6-12 months, if we are to meet the ambitious targets set by the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) of reaching 5 MMT of green hydrogen production (and supply by 2030).

Key Challenges & Need for Sectoral Demand-Side Interventions 

There are heightened concerns from industry and investors that only 13% of India’s Green Hydrogen 2030 targets are likely to be met, in the absence of additional govt and policy actions, slow public procurement and limited domestic industrial offtake commitments risk stalling Green Hydrogen projects and plans for Green Hydrogen and Electrolyzer production, putting India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) and Supply Side support through the NGHM SIGHT Scheme at risk. 

IH2A has made a submission to the Government of India and the NGHM Secretariat to consider increasing budget allocation and support to the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM), with an additional allocation of US$ 2.5 billion from 2026-2030 for demand side sectoral incentives (in addition to existing US$ 2.3 billion existing allocation) to encourage hard-to-abate sectors (Refineries, Fertilizers, Steel, Chemicals) to replace Grey Hydrogen with Green Hydrogen, by creating an Industrial Green Hydrogen Transition Fund. This should be in the form of:

1. Exploring a Contract-for-Difference (CfD) mechanism to provide Green Hydrogen offtake price support to industrial offtake entities and suppliers, as followed by Japan. Interestingly, the Japan’s CfD tenders eligibility requires suppliers and offtake entities have to bid jointly by forming consortia.

2. India should mandate for Green Hydrogen use in hard-to-abate sectors, to replace current use of Grey Hydrogen with Green Hydrogen by 2030. IH2A has suggested a minimum 10% Green Hydrogen Purchase Obligation or Consumption Mandate in large Refineries, Fertilizers, Steel and Chemical Units by 2030, to the Government.

3. Public procurement for Green Steel, Green Fuels, Green Fertilizers and Chemicals that use Green Hydrogen in their production processes is another demand-side intervention that can be led by the Government of India. Minimum thresholds for public procurement of Green Steel, Green Fuels, Green Fertilizers and Chemicals by PSUs, will provide additional derived demand support for green hydrogen production and encourage offtake.

4. Refineries are the largest users of Grey Hydrogen by volume, and can replace Grey Hydrogen with Green Hydrogen (starting with just replacing 10% of their existing grey hydrogen demand), acting as an anchor demand sector. In addition to mandating green hydrogen offtake in refineries, an aggregated SECI Tender for Green Hydrogen Supply to Refineries, starting with a 350,000 MTPA aggregated supply tender, would be able to meet an additional 7% of NGHM 2030 target, if delivered within next 3 years. IH2A has estimated 350,000 MTPA to represent a 10% replacement of grey hydrogen by 2030, and should be a starting point for encouraging refinery offtake of Green Hydrogen. Replicating SECI-style aggregated public procurement method for Indian Refineries, to procure green hydrogen from suppliers, as has been done for Green Ammonia in the fertilizer sector should reduce public procurement timelines significantly and accelerate project development. If India is able to progress with an SECI tender for aggregated public procurement by PSU refineries, India can achieve 1 MMTPA by 2030, i.e. achieve 20% of the NGHM 2030 target, as opposed to the 13% expected currently (without aggregated tendering by refineries). This is a significant opportunity, but a current challenge as refineries are pursuing individual refinery-led public procurement, with frequent delays and expanded timelines.

Hydrogen Infrastructure Creation & H2 hubs (co-located production and consumption/offtake)

India should prioritise Shared Hydrogen Infrastructure Creation at least five Industrial H2 Clusters or Hubs, through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) or Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). State Green Hydrogen Hub Development Corporations (GHDCs) should be encouraged to create and operate shared hydrogen infrastructure and link it to planned large-scale green hydrogen projects and hub/ cluster development in the states. This builds on the approach taken by the state governments of Kerala and Maharashtra.

At a central level, the Indian government and industry should create a Bharat Green and Low-Carbon Hydrogen Project Development Group, with public and private sector offtake entities and project developers, to help review and share best practices to accelerate Green Hydrogen and Ammonia project development in the country. IH2A members have been leading Green Hydrogen project development and commissioning, and we would be happy to help create this voluntary industry resource with support from NGHM and the Government of India, to gather project updates for the government and investors. 

Large Green Hydrogen Hubs/Clusters and Large Commercial-Sale Projects (more than 50 MWe Electrolyzer Capacity) should be included within the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure. This will allow large projects to benefit from Infrastructure-related provisions and support project development.

Creation of a Low-Carbon Hydrogen Standard in India

We should also acknowledge some of the project development challenges faced by industry globally. Different industry players will take different technology routes and decisions to decarbonize their operations and sectors. Some may adopt low-carbon pathway and a combination of low-carbon and green hydrogen transition plans. We should encourage all such industry efforts, rather than force them to follow a single technology pathway. 

For this, India should create a Low-Carbon Hydrogen Standard, as has been done in Europe (in addition to the Green Hydrogen Standard) to encourage industries to pursue both, low-carbon and green hydrogen transition pathways, with public finance support limited to green hydrogen transition pathways. 

This is a pragmatic way to move forward that encourages industries to decarbonize rather than penalize them for doing so with alternate pathways.