India’s ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has issued guidelines for setting up green hydrogen hubs across the country under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, a government statement said on Tuesday, March 19.
The mission envisages to identify and develop regions capable of supporting large-scale production and utilization of hydrogen with central financial assistance (CFA) for developing the core infrastructure.
It is planned to set up at least two such green hydrogen hubs by 2025-26 with central financial support of INR 1 billion ($12 million) each for supporting the core infrastructure.
The hydrogen hub should have a planned capacity of at least 100,000 mt per year.
A scheme implementing agency nominated by MNRE will invite proposals for the projects.
The projects will be evaluated based on the planned production capacity (weightage 50 percent), technology, applications and end-use (weightage 20 percent, and financial commitment (weightage 30 percent), the guidelines said.
Evaluation of proposals on this assessment criteria will be given a weightage of 80 percent, with the balance of 20 percent on the basis of the presentation made before the evaluation committee.
The letter of award will be issued to the executing agency upon administrative sanction from the MNRE.
The CFA will be disbursed to the winning projects as per: 20 percent on the date of issue of administrative approval, 70 percent based on milestones achieved, and 10 percent on the completion of construction and commissioning.
The core infrastructure to be supported includes storage and transportation facilities for green hydrogen and its derivatives, pipeline infrastructure, a green hydrogen-powered vehicle re-fuelling facility, hydrogen compression and liquefaction technologies, hydrogen storage systems, water treatment and storage facility, bunkering facilities in the case of ports, infrastructure upgrading for shipping, power transmission infrastructure to the nearest existing grid substation, and land re-development, according to the guidelines.