The Government is implementing the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) with the objective of making India a global hub for production, usage and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives. The mission is being advanced through capacity awards, demand aggregation and pilot programmes to accelerate domestic manufacturing and supply chains.

An electrolyser manufacturing capacity of 3000 megawatt (MW) per annum has been awarded to 15 companies. Awards for green hydrogen production total 862,000 tonne (t) per annum of capacity and have been made to 18 companies to build supply at scale. These capacity awards are intended to support downstream industries and exports as part of the mission.

Demand aggregation for green ammonia has resulted in price discovery by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for production and supply of 724,000 t per annum to 13 fertiliser units. In the refinery sector awards cover 20,000 t per annum for supply to Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, while price discovery has been completed for a further 10,000 t per annum for Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Assam.

Five pilot projects have been sanctioned to deploy hydrogen in the steel sector and a port authority has awarded a project to develop a bunkering and refuelling facility for green methanol. Five pilot projects will deploy 37 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles with nine Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRS) along 10 routes across the country. Investment commitments from project developers have not been made available.

The government has detailed measures to expand the city gas distribution (CGD) network including allocation of domestic gas on priority to compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG), diversion from non-priority sectors and expansion of the national gas grid. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has published a roadmap on hydrogen transportation through pipelines and blending with natural gas. The Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy conveyed these details in Rajya Sabha.