India invites expressions of interest for clean hydrogen innovation clusters

India has invited expressions of interest for building clean hydrogen innovation clusters in partnership with the government and industry players with a goal to finalize consortia by October, the Department of Science and Technology said in guidelines April 19.

The Hydrogen Valley Innovation Clusters are to demonstrate the development of technology in the entire value chain of clean hydrogen via small-scale industrial deployment, the department said.

The valleys would "carry out demonstrations of clean hydrogen solutions with the view to local, regional, and nationwide deployment," it said.

The objective was to assess "the resource availability, involving stakeholders, and addressing renewable production, distribution, storage, and use for transport and energy-intensive industries."

The deadline for submissions is May 4, following which project initiation and formation of companies would be completed by October, the guidelines said.

The infrastructure and production should be operational within 18 months, it said.

Beyond five years, the responsibility would be on the companies to scale up the clusters, in addition to tying up and identifying appropriate funding agencies, it added.

Each HVIC would be based on a public-private partnership model whereby industry partners willing to contribute toward the funding with respect to their area of expertise in the hydrogen value chain would be preferred, it said.

Funding support

The department is to allocate up to Rupee 300 million ($3.65 million), or 50% of the HVIC total cost, whichever is lower, it said.

"A particular HVIC may source additional funds from the government or private sector firms supporting green energy businesses," it added.

Earlier in January, the Indian government had announced a National Green Hydrogen Mission. For the production of renewable hydrogen and electrolyzers, the state is to provide Rupee 197.44 billion ($2.4 billion), with a goal of delivering 5 million mt/yr of renewable hydrogen by 2030.

The mission also aims for scaling up hydrogen production to reach 10 million mt/yr in an unidentified timeframe and a 10% share in the global renewable hydrogen trade around 2030.

India has around 57 renewable or low-carbon hydrogen projects with a combined forecast capacity of around 2 million mt/yr, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed Qatar hydrogen produced via alkaline electrolysis (including capex) at $2.59/kg April 19, down 0.77% month on month.

It assessed Japan hydrogen produced via PEM electrolysis at $4.49/kg April 19, up 9.25% from a month ago, S&P Global data showed.