India's government issues a tender to build a 4.5 lakh tonne green hydrogen generating facility

The Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme has invited bids for the construction of a 4.5 lakh tonne per year green hydrogen generation facility in India. The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has administrative supervision over SECI, a government-owned company in India. It serves as a key agency for carrying out various renewable energy programmes around the nation. A total of 4.5 lakh tonnes per year are up for bid, comprising 4.1 lakh tonnes under technology-agnostic pathways and 40,000 tonnes under biomass-based pathways.

This tender will award a total of 450,000 tonnes of green hydrogen (GH2) annually. A bidder, including its parent, affiliate, or ultimate parent, as well as any group companies, were required to submit a single bid committing to the establishment of a GH2 manufacturing plant. It said that quotes for the projects may only be provided in multiples of 500 tonnes.

The minimum and maximum bid capacities for the Technology Agnostic Pathways (Bucket I) would be 10,000 tonnes and 90,000 tonnes, respectively. The minimum bid capacity under Biomass Based Pathways (Bucket II) is 500 tonnes, while the maximum bid capacity is 4,000 tonnes. 30 months from the date of the Letter of Award would be the maximum amount of time permitted for commissioning (SCD).

The pre-bid meeting is set for July 28, 2023, and the tender was floated on July 10, 2023. By September 11, 2023, hard copies of the bids may be submitted; they will then be opened on September 12. The National Green Hydrogen Mission would get an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore from the Union Cabinet through 2029–30.

With a budget of Rs 17,490 crore, the SIGHT initiative is a significant financial component of the mission. The initiative suggests two different financial incentive schemes to encourage residential electrolyser and green hydrogen production. These incentives are designed to promote cost-cutting, technology development, and speedy scale-up.