The Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF-SO) held the second meeting of the Subworking Group on Plant Engineering and Production under the Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force on 20 March 2023.

The meeting was joined by Dr. Prasad A. Chaphekar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), who briefed the members on the main aspects of the Indian National Green Hydrogen Mission Document relevant to this specific subworking group. The mission document launched on 4 January 2023, specifically offers Rs. 17,490 crore for manufacturing of electrolysers and green hydrogen. Dr. Chaphekar also shared that the Task Force members should now take benefit of the activities finalised for trading of carbon credits under Article 6.2 mechanism of the National Designated Authority for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (NDAIPA). As per the notification of the NDAIPA, green hydrogen and green ammonia have been finalised to be considered for carbon trading. In the earlier meeting of this subworking group, the participants had also identified CO₂ certificates as an additional revenue stream for green hydrogen sales and marked it as an important deliverable.

On 15 February 2023, the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) along with IGEF-SO organised a webinar for the task force wherein Mr. Philipp Veh, Perspectives Climate Group, offered insights on carbon markets. This was reiterated during the meeting along with other deliverables which have been achieved since November last year.

An ongoing deliverable of this group has been offering updates on the largest green ammonia, green methanol, and electricity-based sustainable aviation fuel tender (e-SAF) implemented by HintCo. Mr. Tobias Winter, Director, IGEF-SO, informed the participants that the deadline for the green ammonia tender ended on 28 February 2023 and the German Energy agency (DENA), is currently evaluating the results while the deadline for the green methanol and e-SAF tender has been extended to 11 April 2023.

The group was also briefed on the Hydrogen Valley Project of DST by Dr. Debasish Roy, Director, Steinbeis New Energy Centre. He informed the participants that there is a 100% grant-in-aid for research institutions, and 50% grant for Indian companies and startups.

The discussions of the meeting led to recognising the next course of action which would be to learn about the requirements of the German companies to consider India as a manufacturer of hydrogen electrolyser and fuel cell technology , and for IGEF-SO to assist in increasing the interaction between the German and Indian stakeholders.

The presentation on the deliverables of this subworking group can be downloaded here.