India has introduced two schemes to incentivise the manufacturing of electrolysers and Green Hydrogen as a part of the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) program worth Rs 17,490 crore under the National Green Hydrogen Mission.
Project SIGHT has an outlay of Rs. 17,490 crore which will be covered by the Rs 19,744 crore budget provisions for the National Hydrogen Mission until FY30. Both schemes will be implemented from FY26 to FY30 by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
The first component on electrolyser manufacturing has a budget of Rs 4,440 crore while the second component on Green Hydrogen has a total budget of Rs. 13,050 crore.
The objective of the first component of the scheme is to maximise domestic electrolyser manufacturing capacity and achieve lower production costs. The base incentive will start at Rs. 4,440/kilowatt and decrease annually for five years.
Applicants must provide details of their annual manufacturing capacity, committed specific energy consumption and local value addition when applying for incentives under this scheme. The eligibility criteria for bidders have been set at over Rs 1 crore/megawatts of quoted manufacturing capacity, with at least half of the annual sales of electrolysers allocated for domestic projects.
The bidding process allows for a capacity of 1,500 MW in the first tranche of this scheme, with a maximum capacity of 300 MW and a minimum capacity of 100 MW per bidder.
The second component of the incentive scheme focuses on Green Hydrogen with a total budget of Rs. 13,050 crores until FY30. The aim of this scheme is to maximise Green Hydrogen production, promote its large-scale use and enhance its cost-competitiveness compared to fossil fuels.
An equivalence factor of 0.1765 kg of Green Hydrogen per kilogram of Green Ammonia will be used to determine incentives. Selected beneficiaries will receive a direct financial incentive per kilogram of Green Hydrogen production for the first three years.
The incentives will be capped at Rs 50/kg in the first year, Rs 40/kg in the second year and Rs 30/kg in the third year of production. Bidders will need to specify their annual Green Hydrogen production capacity and the incentive sought in rupees per kilogram. Qualified bidders will be allocated capacity based on the least average incentive sought in rupees per kilogram.
Under the Technology Agnostic Pathways (TAP), there will be 4.10 lakh metric tonnes/annum of Green Hydrogen available for bidding, while under the Biomass-based pathways (BBP), 40,000 metric tonnes/annum of Green Hydrogen will be available.
Bidders must have a net worth of 15 crores/1000 MT per annum of quoted Green Hydrogen production capacity to be eligible under TAP. The maximum capacity that can be allocated to a bidder under TAP is 90,000 MT/annum, with a minimum of 10,000 MT/annum.
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