India has the potential to be an exporter of green hydrogen, as the country’s abundant renewable energy resources will help it become one of the lowest-cost producers of the fuel in the world, delegates heard at a conference organised by research firm BloombergNEF in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“India possibly could have an export market. The reason is we are sufficiently well-equipped to generate renewable energy at a very cost-competitive price globally, and that is the major factor in hydrogen,” Kapil Maheshwari, president of new energy at Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, said at the event.

“We will be able to compete in the world. Some of those countries that are very pro-green hydrogen do not have that flexibility, so India would certainly see that as an export market,” he says.

Reliance chair Mukesh Ambani said in February that India could export $500bn worth of clean energy over the next 20 years.

India consumed 6mn t of hydrogen in 2020, none of which was produced using renewable electricity, according to local ratings agency ICRA. Green hydrogen could account for c.30pc of the country’s expected 9mn t/yr of hydrogen demand by 2030.

6mn t – India hydrogen consumption in 2020

This would amount to just over half of India’s official green hydrogen production target of 5mn t/yr by 2030, leaving significant volumes available for export to markets willing to pay a premium for zero-carbon fuels.

“In the long run, there will be good potential to export liquid hydrogen,” says Sanjay Khanna, director of refineries at state refiner Bharat Petroleum. “Hydrogen in liquid form will be much in demand at very, very premium rates, and that day will come for India.”

Bharat said last November that it would build a 20MW electrolyser at its 120,000bl/d refinery in Bina in the state of Madhya Pradesh to produce green hydrogen. The first phase of the project will see green hydrogen make up 10pc of the refinery’s overall hydrogen requirements, which are equivalent to 60t/d, according to Khanna.

The company is also inviting bids for a 5MW electrolyser at a city gas distribution project in Maharashtra state that will produce green hydrogen to blend with gas in the distribution network. Khanna says the test project is likely to be commissioned by next year and will be scaled up if successful.

Green hydrogen to cut energy import bills

India is vying to be the lowest-cost production hub for hydrogen, but the domestic economy “will not be able to afford it, [so] it will be basically for the export market”, according to Naresh Lalwani, head of strategy, planning and diligence at steelmaker JSW Steel, adding that this will change over time as costs come down and domestic demand takes off. The country is capable of generating 1,100-1,200GW of solar and wind power, which would be enough to produce 30mn t/yr of green hydrogen, says Lalwani.

This 30mn t/yr is equivalent to 90mn t/yr of petroleum products—still far short of the 200mn t/yr of oil products consumed by India that must be substituted with clean alternatives, according to Lalwani.

“Looking at the demand for the Indian economy, I feel that, in the longer term, India would definitely be an importer of green fuel,” he says.

Maheshwari says New Delhi’s ambitions to build a hydrogen ecosystem based on the green variety rather than the blue made sense given accelerating talk of turning hydrogen into other fuels such as ammonia and methanol.

“We have a $5-6bn ammonia import bill. If we can look at green [hydrogen] initially and then possibly fuel derivatives, it could be possible. Ammonia prices were $500/t and have gone to $1,500/t, so we would actually be bridging the gap.”

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Author: Shi Weijun