National Green Hydrogen Mission: targets, incentives and opportunities for foreign firms

The Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission on 4 January 2023 with an outlay of ₹19,744 crore: ₹17,490 crore for the SIGHT incentive programme, ₹1,466 crore for pilot projects, ₹400 crore for research and ₹388 crore for other components.^[1][2]

The 2030 targets are at least 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year, about 125 GW of associated renewable capacity, over ₹8 lakh crore of investment and around 50 million tonnes a year of avoided emissions.^[2] The government has said India would need 60–100 GW of electrolysers to get there.^[3]

Timelines are slipping. In November 2025 the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said India would likely reach about 3 million tonnes by 2030 and 5 million tonnes by 2032.^[23]

SIGHT (Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition) pays incentives for electrolyser manufacturing and for green hydrogen production. Electrolyser incentives start at ₹4,440 per kW in year one and fall to ₹1,480 per kW by year five; production incentives were capped at ₹50, ₹40 and ₹30 per kg over the first three years.^[4]

The ammonia auctions show how these combine with buyer demand. The first auction, for Paradeep Phosphates, cleared at ₹55.75 per kg for 75,000 tonnes a year; Jakson Green won Coromandel’s Kakinada volume at ₹50.75 per kg; and the volume-weighted average across all 13 auctions was about ₹53 per kg.^[5][6]

In July and August 2025, SECI ran 13 auctions for 724,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia for fertiliser makers on 10-year contracts. Prices ranged from ₹49.75 to ₹64.74 per kg; ACME won about half the volume, including the lowest bid of ₹49.75 per kg for IFFCO’s Paradeep plant.^[5][6] Supply agreements were being signed by March 2026; one buyer’s stock-exchange filing describes a 70,000 tonne-a-year, 10-year contract at price parity with grey ammonia.^[7]

For foreign firms these auctions matter twice: they create firm demand for electrolysers, balance-of-plant equipment and EPC services in India, and they set a price benchmark for Indian green ammonia exports.

Refineries are the other early buyer. In May 2025 Indian Oil awarded L&T Green a 25-year build-own-operate contract to supply 10,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen to its Panipat refinery at ₹397 per kg, about US$4.6.^[32] It was India’s first end-user offtake auction for green hydrogen and gives bidders a reference price for future refinery tenders.

The structure is worth noting for foreign technology suppliers: the refinery buys hydrogen, not a plant. The developer owns the electrolysers, renewable power and storage, so equipment makers sell to the developer and its EPC contractor rather than to the oil company.

• Hubs. Deendayal (Kandla), V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin) and Paradip ports are recognised green hydrogen hubs.^[8]
• Definition. Hydrogen counts as green in India only if well-to-gate emissions are no more than 2 kg of CO2-equivalent per kg of hydrogen, averaged over 12 months.^[9]
• Certification. A national certification scheme issued in April 2025 makes facility and annual certificates mandatory, verified by agencies accredited by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.^[9]
• Transmission charges. Inter-state transmission charges are waived for 25 years for green hydrogen and ammonia projects commissioned by 31 December 2030.^[10]
• State policies. Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra offer dedicated incentives such as tax reimbursement, electricity duty and stamp duty exemptions; Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Odisha support projects through wider industrial policies.^[11][12][13]

India’s Green Hydrogen Standard, notified by the renewable energy ministry in August 2023, sets the bar at no more than 2 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per kg of hydrogen, measured well-to-gate and averaged over the previous 12 months.^[28] The boundary covers water treatment, electrolysis, gas purification, drying and compression, and the definition includes both electrolysis and biomass routes.^[28]

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency accredits the agencies that monitor, verify and certify production.^[28] The Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme of India, published in April 2025, sets out how producers measure and report emissions and how BEE-accredited verifiers check them.^[29]

For exporters this matters because buyers in Europe and Japan apply their own rules. A project certified in India may still need separate certification to sell into the EU or to qualify for Japanese support, so the plant design and power sourcing should be checked against the target market’s rules from the start.

In October 2025 the renewable energy ministry recognised three major ports as green hydrogen hubs: Deendayal (Kandla) in Gujarat, V.O. Chidambaranar (Tuticorin) in Tamil Nadu and Paradip in Odisha.^[30][31] Hub status brings no direct grant, but projects there can combine central and state incentives with port land and shared infrastructure.^[30]

Beyond the ports, the ministry endorsed NTPC’s proposed hub at Pudimadaka in Andhra Pradesh, and five transport pilots were sanctioned covering 37 hydrogen vehicles and nine refuelling stations on ten routes.^[31] The Paradip jetty is a direct PPP opportunity for port operators and EPC contractors; the hubs as a whole are where suppliers of storage, handling and safety equipment should focus.

• Electrolyser technology. Belgium’s John Cockerill formed a 2 GW electrolyser factory venture with Greenko, which won 300 MW of SIGHT capacity; US-based Ohmium built a PEM electrolyser gigafactory near Bengaluru; Germany’s thyssenkrupp nucera partnered BHEL in 2026 to manufacture alkaline electrolysers in India.^{[14][15][16][5]}
• Equity. Petronas’s Gentari agreed to invest US$1.6 billion for 30% of AM Green’s ammonia business.^[18]
• Offtake. Germany’s Uniper signed for up to 500,000 tonnes a year of renewable ammonia from AM Green’s Kakinada plant, and AM Green won the Asian lot of Germany’s H2Global tender in 2026. Sembcorp agreed to supply green ammonia from Tuticorin to Japanese buyers.^[19][20][17]
• Government partnerships. Japan and India signed a joint declaration on clean hydrogen and ammonia in August 2025, and Germany and India published a joint green hydrogen roadmap in October 2024.^[21][22]

The pattern for foreign technology companies is local manufacturing or licensing with an Indian partner, because incentives and procurement preference reward local production. Our partner search service finds and checks that partner; our energy sector brief covers the wider energy transition.

• Cost. A 2025 Indian Oil tender for green hydrogen at its Panipat refinery cleared at about ₹397 per kg, after two earlier attempts drew weak interest.^[24]
• Offtake and payment security. Analysts in late 2025 flagged slow offtake agreements, unclear payment security if buyers default, delayed tenders and lagging transmission.^[25]
• Deadlines. The 2030 target has been publicly pushed towards 2032.^[23]

For foreign firms, that means picking projects with signed offtake and strong sponsors, and structuring payment security before committing equipment or capital.

• Factories under electrolyser tranche I were due by 9 August 2026, and under tranche II by 26 March 2027.^[5] In 2025 manufacturers asked to move the first deadline to 2027 because demand was slow.^[26]
• Production under hydrogen tranche I is due by February 2027 and under tranche II by February 2028.^[5]
• Analysts expect most projects with 2027 deadlines to miss them.^[25]

Delays create openings as well as risk: projects that are behind schedule need equipment, engineering and capital, and some sponsors will look for partners or sellers.