January 23, 2024 [H2 View]- The India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) has submitted a proposal to increase budgetary support for the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM).

The proposal was submitted to the Ministry of France and Government of India and will ensure the creation of a $5bn National Hydrogen Transition and Development Fund to support large-scale hydrogen projects, hub development, hydrogen supply chains beyond electrolyser manufacturing, sectoral hydrogen transition plans, and infrastructure development.

Designed similarly to the EU Green Hydrogen Fund, IH2A recommended five areas that the proposed fund should support:

• Co-development of at least five national hydrogen hubs (beyond the two hubs planned in the existing NGHM), with both state government and project developers; and offtake-linked incentives for Anchor Industrial Offtake entities and Contracts-for-Difference (CfD) funding.
• Provide CAPEX support for greenfield hydrogen infrastructure, such as pipelines and storage facilities.
• Support governments in developing domestic hydrogen equipment and supply chain equipment manufacturing clusters, for Balance of Plant (BoP) equipment.
• Support for sectoral hydrogen transition plans with CAPEX incentives and offtake incentives, in steel and chemicals, aligning with the SIGHT Mode 2 guidelines for fertiliser and refinery sectors.
• Build a National Hydrogen Transition Skilling Programme, aimed to create more hydrogen engineering design and service professionals, working with colleges and research institutions.

Jillian Evanko, President and CEO of Chart Industries and Founding Member of IH2A, said, “The time is right to raise public funding to match the needs of a large economy that has high ambitions for accelerating the hydrogen transition.

“A $5bn India Hydrogen Transition Fund would put India at par with the EU, from public funding perspective, which is still short of India’s real requirement as the entire value chain needs to be developed in the country.

“India needs more hydrogen hubs, accelerated sectoral decarbonisation in steel and chemicals, hydrogen infrastructure and domestic equipment manufacturing, and specialised skill development. These should be five key priorities for developing the hydrogen economy in India in 2024.”

Amrit Singh Deo, Secretariat Lead of the IH2A, added, “A $5bn hydrogen transition fund can be put together by pooling multilateral funding and government energy transition sources, such as allocating proportion from the energy transition constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and tapping sovereign green bonds.”

IH2A also submitted a plan to develop five $5bn green hydrogen hubs to the Government of India last year (2023), dubbed the National Green Hydrogen Hub Economic Viability and Development Plan.

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