Indian state-owned ONGC has signed a memorandum of understanding with Greenko, the country’s largest renewables firm, to jointly develop a $6bn green ammonia project aimed at international markets.

The project would be based on 1.3GW of electrolyser capacity to produce green hydrogen for conversion to 1mn t/yr of ammonia from 2026, ONGC says. Proposals include the joint development of 6-7GW of solar and wind power, which would be coupled with Greenko’s pumped hydro storage capacity.

Greenko has an installed generation capacity of 7.3GW across solar, wind and hydro assets spread over more than hundred projects across 15 Indian states.

“The project will be instrumental in achieving India’s target production of 5mn t of green hydrogen by the year 2030 and will emerge as a stepping stone for ONGC to achieve renewable energy targets as per its Energy Strategy 2040,” ONGC says.

1mn t/yr – Target green ammonia production

The project will utilise Greenko’s joint venture (JV) with Belgian electrolyser manufacturer John Cockerill. The two companies formed the JV earlier this year to develop a gigafactory in India producing John Cockerill’s pressurised alkaline technology.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced the country’s hydrogen mission in 2021, allocating INR250mn/yr ($3.1mn/yr) for research and development. India’s cheap renewables—particularly solar—coupled with high current fossil fuel prices, led to the government to set out a raft of additional policies earlier this year designed to drive investment in green hydrogen projects as it targets production of 5mn t/yr by 2030.

Several projects have already emerged but meeting the 2030 target will require a doubling of India’s renewable generation capacity, according to a recent report by financial services firm EY. Production of 5mn t/yr of hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis would require 115GW of installed renewables capacity, it says. Current installed capacity is about 106GW.

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Author: Stuart Penson