India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) has proposed to NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) the establishment of an H2Bharat Public-Private Task force to develop a GW-scale national hydrogen hub development plan, with the goal of identifying at least five large GW-scale Green hydrogen hubs for development in India within the next 18 months.

The suggestion was a consequence of NITI Aayog and IH2A’s second workshop on developing India’s hydrogen economy, and was one of seven themes discussed during the workshop. Representatives from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank, the OECD, GIZ, CDC, and FMO, as well as the Governments of India and Kerala, as well as industry stakeholders from across the hydrogen value chain, attended the workshop.

The seven steps advised by the NITI Aayog-IH2A workshop are as follows:

To commercialize green hydrogen, India should emulate the worldwide best practice of GW-scale Green H2 hubs with co-located Green H2 production and consumption across several use cases in a single regional cluster or hub.

The first Green H2 hubs should be classified as national initiatives or ‘Particular Projects of National Importance,’ with special incentives and public funds provided.
It is critical to establish public-private partnerships for the establishment of national green hydrogen hubs and project clusters in order to pool public and private resources and to mitigate risk associated with early project development.
Sovereign green bonds and promises to global climate finance can provide the necessary money for India’s GW-scale Green Hydrogen hubs. By co-financing the design and pre-feasibility studies for national hubs, multilateral and government organizations can act as catalysts in early market development.
India need a pipeline of national hydrogen hubs that can be reviewed prior to granting them public and low-cost funding. Funding agencies prefer to see project proposals that incorporate synergies across the green hydrogen value chain rather than focusing just on green hydrogen initiatives.
Pre-feasibility studies for the first set of green hydrogen hubs on a GW scale should begin immediately, with at least five national green hydrogen hubs identified within the next 18 months.
Establishment of a public-private H2Bharat commercialization task force with an emphasis on the creation of green H2 hubs or clusters, with the objective of conducting pre-feasibility studies for the first five GW green H2 clusters/hubs in India within the next 12 months.

Commenting on the Green Hydrogen Hub funding workshop and the H2Bharat Public-Private Task force proposal, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive, NITI Aayog, said, “Our aim is to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $2.5/kg by 2025 and $1/kg by 2030. This is possible only by increasing size and scale of hydrogen manufacturing. With rapidly falling renewable energy costs, India’s green hydrogen production cost is expected to be amongst the lowest in the world. The H2Bharat Task force is an interesting proposal to kick-start green hydrogen project development at large GW-scale. We welcome this voluntary initiative from the industry and look forward to collaborating on it.”

Commenting on the H2Bharat Public-Private Task force proposal to the Government of India, Jill Evanko, Chief Executive and President, Chart Industries, and founding member, IH2A, said, “The H2Bharat Task force will identify and shortlist five GW-scale national green hydrogen hubs for development in the next 12 months. It would bring together all relevant stakeholders from the government, funding agencies and the industry. IH2A will be happy to extend resources for this initiative voluntarily and work together with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for it.”

IH2A predicts that India will require around USD 25 billion in public and private sector investments to establish a domestic green hydrogen supply chain capable of producing 5 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030. It previously said that collaborative public-private efforts will be necessary to establish the first generation of large-scale commercial hydrogen plants.