The renewables arm of India’s largest power utility NTPC expects to place orders for 1 GW of electrolyzers by 2026-27 once firm offtake deals were in place, Mohit Bhargava, CEO of NTPC Renewable Energy told S&P Global Commodity Insights Sept. 5.
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Register Now NTPC has a 73-GW generation portfolio dominated by fossil-fuel-fired power stations, with 3.3 GW of renewable capacity and 5.9 GW in construction. By 2032 it is targeting 60 GW of renewable plants.
“We have tied up agencies from who we will buy the electrolyzers. This is only 1 GW right now. Going forward we will upscale,” Bhargava said on the sidelines of the Green Hydrogen Pilots seminar organized by the Indian power ministry in New Delhi.
But orders of magnitude would only be made “when we have people who have signed on for buying,” he said, adding “it could be three-four years” before that happened.
Bhargava said price remained a stmbling block in various negotiations for offtake agreements.
In June, NTPC selected US hydrogen technology company Ohmium International as its PEM electrolyzer supply partner, valid for two years.
Ohmium’s electrolyzers were expected to be deployed in up to 400 MW of projects across a range of industrial and commercial applications, including ammonia, transportation and power.
NTPC’s blueprint involves scaling up its renewable hydrogen business and developing it as a separate revenue vertical aimed at domestic and foreign markets.
“We will have electrolyzer capacity of 5 GW by 2030,” Bhargava said. “That would be about 1 million mt of renewable hydrogen. It will not be used as hydrogen alone. It would be used as hydrogen or ammonia.”
Pilot
NTPC has a pilot plant in its Vindhyachal thermal power station in Madhya Pradesh, for which a 5-MW electrolyzer was ordered from France’s Technip Energies in 2021. This unit is generating 2 mt/d of renewable hydrogen.
In the same year, NTPC cotracted the UK’s Carbon Clean to design and build a carbon capture plant in Vindhyachal, where 20 mtCO2/d is being captured from the power plant’s flue gas stack.
This is being put together for manufacturing 10 mt/d of renewable methanol.
On the demand side, India’s renewable hydrogen strategy has not yet laid down mandatory consumption targets for refineries, chemicals and fertilizers, but government officials have said this is being worked out.
Opportunities
With this in mind, NTPC is looking for users of its renewable hydrogen/ammonia among refineries and fertilizer companies and shipping companies for renewable methanol, Bhargava said.
“These would be much larger play going forward,” he said. “Of course, once we are able to bring down the cost of hydrogen everything is possible.”
The renewable hydrogen offtake price in India is expected to include the cost of production, storage and evacuation infrastructure, starting with $6/kg in 2024, reaching $4/kg in 2031 and going down frther to $1.5/kg in 2044 without any govt support or incentives, the India Hydrogen Alliance said in a June report.
Platts Hydrogen Price Wall shows PEM electrolysis costs in Asia Pacific ranging from $3.06/kg in Queensland to $6.32/kg in Japan (July averages). Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
NTPC is looking at Kutch in Gujarat and Visakhapatnam (Vizag) in Andhra Pradesh as locations for electrolysis plant. Both being coastal locations, exports would be feasible, Bhargava said.
The electrolyzers would be powered by wind, solar and some battery storage.
Applications
The company is also looking at generating electricity from renewable hydrogen in niche applications.
“Electricity from hydrogen is feasible only in off-grid locations, which is what we are going to do with the army,” Bhargava said. “We will set up green hydrogen-based micro grids for the army (with the capacity of) of 200 kW-300 kW at various locations in Ladakh and wherever they say.”
In March this yer NTPC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Army for green hydrogen power generation, including 25-year power purchase agreements.
At the conference, Power Minister RK Singh said India would aim to be a refueling hub for sustainable shipping with efforts underway to set up bunkers.
“World shipping will go green in around 10 years. We have to emerge as a refueling destination since we can provide green hydrogen or green ammonia at the lowest cost,” he said.
Platts assessed Qatar hydrogen produced via alkaline electrolysis (including capex) at $2.61/kg Sept. 6, nearly the same as a month ago.
It assessed Japan hydrogen produced via alkaline electrolysis at $4.89/kg Sept. 6, 13% higher on the month.
NTPC: generating assets (MW)
Capacity Plants
Coal 51,810 26
Coal (JV/units) 7,664 9
Gas 4,017 7
Gas (JV/units) 2,494 4
Hydro 800 1
Hydro (JV/units) 2,925 8
Renewables 411 16
Renewables (JV/units) 2,903 18
Total 73,024
Coal mines 71 mil mt/yr 7
Source: NTPC