India's state-owned fossil fuel company Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has entered into a strategic partnership with Greenko, one of the world's largest renewable energy developers, to develop a 1.3GW green hydrogen project powered by 24/7 renewable energy.
In a memorandum of understanding, the two companies agreed to form a joint venture to build the unnamed $6 billion project. The project will require up to 6-7GW of new wind and solar installations, complete with pumped hydro storage, to supply 1.4GW of all-weather electricity to the John Cockerill alkaline electrolyzer.
According to the Oil and Gas Corporation of India (ONGC), the resulting hydrogen will start production "around 2026" and then be used to produce 1 million tonnes of green ammonia per year.
The longer the electrolyser runs annually, the lower the equilibrium cost of green hydrogen, so the ability to produce hydrogen 24 hours a day should result in a very cost-competitive product.
The supply of these electrolyzers is likely to come from a new 2GW plant in India being built by Greenko and John Cockerill of Belgium, the world's largest supplier of electrolyzers.
Oil and Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) is India's largest oil company with a net worth of $30 billion. The company has previously announced plans to build up to 10GW of renewable energy projects by 2040.
Greenko is one of the world's leading renewable energy developers with 7.3GW of installed wind, solar and hydro power capacity.
