Centre clears ₹22 crore aid for startups under Green Hydrogen Mission

The first batch of support under the National Green Hydrogen Mission's startup programme was announced as MNRE launched the Green Hydrogen Certification Portal

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday announced the approval of the first batch of ₹22 crore support to nine startups under the National Green Hydrogen Mission’s (NGHM’s) ₹100 crore startup support programme.

 

During a workshop on NGHM organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) on Wednesday, Joshi also launched the Green Hydrogen Certification Portal of India (GHCI) to facilitate certification and regulatory compliance under the Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme of India.

 

He also urged states to expedite the finalisation of their green hydrogen policies. He said, “Wherever the policy is finalised, execution and implementation should be expedited to achieve their set ambition. We will support all the states.”

   

Six states have notified dedicated green hydrogen policies, while seven others have integrated hydrogen into their existing industrial and renewable energy policy frameworks. Four more states are in the process of finalising their policies.

 

Speaking at the event, MNRE Secretary Santosh Sarangi said these states have provided different kinds of facilitation measures for green hydrogen, capital expenditure (capex) subsidies, electricity duty waivers and waivers of wheeling charges.

 

Noting the decline in electricity consumption for hydrogen production, Sarangi said, “When alkaline-based electrolyzers were being used in the initial days, it used to be about 55 units to produce a kg of hydrogen. Subsequently, with proton exchange membrane technology, it has come down further, and now 46-48 units of electricity is used for producing hydrogen.”

 

He added that solid oxide electrolyzer cell is another technology where electricity consumption is expected to come down further and should be in the range of about 38-42 units, going down to even 33 units.

 

The Mission, launched in 2023, has an outlay of ₹19,744 crore to achieve at least 5 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity annually by 2030.