60 GW of renewable energy will be needed to support India's green hydrogen ambition, says ICRA

ICRA, one of India's leading ratings-cum-research agencies, believes that as much as 60 GW of renewable energy capacity will be requried to support India's demand for green hydrogen by 2030, which it expects to be 9 million tons (compared with around 5 mt of grey hydrogen today).

Hydrogen demand is expected to be around 9 MMT by the year 2030, basis annual demand growth of 4% inhydrogen consumption. As per industry estimates, considering a scenario of 30% of hydrogen requirement beingmet through Green Hydrogen by the existing industrial users, electrolyser capacity is estimated between 20-25 GW, according to Rohit Ajuja, Head - Research and Outreach, ICRA.

For producing 30% of the hydrogen production through electrolysis technology, 60 GW of renewable energy will beneeded. 

Interestingly, ICRA believes that this 60GW will not count for the government's target of 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030--a commitment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made at the Glasgow COP in November 2021. "As this demand is exclusively for hydrogen production, the same is estimated over and above 500 GW target of the Government," ICRA says. 

Hydrogen demand for ammonia stood at around 2.9 MMT currently as per ICRA’s estimates and is expected togrow to 4.3 MMT by the year 2030 primarily driven by increase in urea production. It is estimated that ~30% i.e. ~1 MMT will be by way of green hydrogen which may help production of ~5 MMT green ammonia in the year 2030.