The India Hydrogen Alliance (IH2A) has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, for increasing budgetary support for the National Green H₂ Mission (NGHM) and creating a $5-B National Hydrogen Transition and Development Fund, similar to the EU Green Hydrogen Fund, to support large-scale H₂ projects and H₂ hub development, H₂ supply chains beyond electrolyzer manufacturing, sectoral H₂ transition plans, skilling and H₂ infrastructure development in the country.

IH2A’s proposed National Hydrogen Transition Funding mechanism is akin to the EU Green Hydrogen Fund which supports green H₂ projects of national importance and H₂ hubs. IH2A has recommended five areas that the proposed National Hydrogen Transition and Development Fund should support:

• Co-development of at least 5 large National H₂ Hubs (beyond the 2 Hubs planned in the existing NGHM), together with state government and project developers (both private and state-owned); offtake-linked incentives for Anchor Industrial Offtake entities and Contracts-for-Difference (CfD) funding.
• Provide CAPEX support for greenfield H₂ infrastructure such as H₂ pipelines and storage facilities that will lower the cost of green H₂ supply to offtake users.
• Support state governments in developing domestic H₂ equipment and supply chain equipment manufacturing clusters, for balance of plant (BoP) Equipment (beyond electrolyzers).
• Support sectoral H₂ transition plan with CAPEX incentives and offtake incentives, in steel and chemicals, in line with the SIGHT Mode 2 guidelines for Fertilizer and Refinery sectors.
• Build a National Hydrogen Transition Skilling program to create more H₂ engineering design and engineering services professionals, working with engineering colleges and research institutions.

Speaking about IH2A’s submission to the Government of India for greater budgetary support, Jillian Evanko, President and CEO, Chart Industries and Founding Member, IH2A said, “We are very pleased to see the Government of India taking the first step towards demand aggregation and offtake incentives in fertilizer and refinery sectors, with the Mode 2A and 2B Guidelines under the NGHM SIGHT Scheme. The time is right to raise public funding to match the needs of a large economy that has high ambitions for accelerating the H₂ transition. A $5-B 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 H₂ hubs, accelerated sectoral decarbonization in steel and chemicals, H₂ infrastructure and domestic equipment manufacturing and specialized skill development. These should be five key priorities for developing the H₂ economy in India in 2024. We look forward to working with all stakeholders to making this a reality.”

On funding the National Hydrogen Transition and Development Fund, Amrit Singh Deo, Secretariat Lead, IH2A said, “A $5-B H₂ transition fund can be put together by pooling multilateral funding and government energy transition sources, such as allocating a proportion from energy transition fund constituted by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and tapping sovereign green bonds.”

Last year, in June, IH2A submitted a plan to develop five $5-B green H₂ hubs to the Government of India, as economically viable projects. Subsequently, the IH2A Hydrogen Equipment Manufacturing, Exports and Services report estimated a $50 B domestic manufacturing opportunity for India, over 2024-2030 period, on the conservative side, being deployed over 135 domestic H₂ projects, producing 1 MMt green H₂ production (a fifth of the 5 MMt national target as per the National Green Hydrogen Mission). Both reports are available on the IH2A website.