ONGC inks MoU with Greenko to jointly produce green hydrogen

The State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) on Tuesday (July 26) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Greenko ZeroC Pvt Ltd., to jointly work on opportunities in renewables, green hydrogen, green ammonia, and other derivatives of green hydrogen.

The MoU was signed in New Delhi by ONGC Director Onshore, Anurag Sharma and Greenko CEO & MD, Anil Kumar Chalamalashetty in the presence of Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri; Secretary (MoP & NG) Pankaj Jain; ONGC CMD, Dr. Alka Mittal along with ONGC Director (Finance) Pomila Jaspal; and other senior officials from ONGC, Greenko, and Ministry of Power & Natural Gas.

The activities envisaged in the MoU will contribute toward India's target of producing 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum by 2030, ONGC said in a statement.

The ONGC and Greenko joint venture will jointly develop a 1 MMTPA green ammonia production and storage facility in the country for export purpose. Greenko has confirmed the 1 MMTPA green ammonia will be produced through a 1.3 GW green hydrogen plant, leveraging Greenko's exclusive partnership with John Cockerill, the world's largest alkaline electrolyzer manufacturer.

"This pioneering endeavor will be one of the largest RE projects in the world requiring about 6 GW of solar and wind RE power coupled with Greenko's path-breaking pumped hydro energy storage platform to generate 1.4 GW of Round-the-Clock RE power (RE RTC)," Greenko said.

The project will be jointly owned and funded by ONGC and Greenko where the partners will combine and collaborate in all aspects of product design and market development. The green ammonia produced from the project aims to tap into the soaring demand in the international markets for alternative molecules derived from green energy as the source.

Domestically, the project is in line with India's National Green Hydrogen Mission which aims to make India a global green hydrogen hub and will cater to the country's urgent need for providing indigenous green energy solutions and contribute toward India's deep decarbonization efforts.

"This pioneering partnership will propel the transformation of India from a carbon-based fossil energy importer to an exporter of renewable energy derived products like green hydrogen, green ammonia, and green molecules," said Anil Kumar Chalamalashetty, CEO &MD, Greenko commenting on the partnership.

"Greenko's Intelligent Renewable Energy Storage Platform (IRESP) will enable Hon'ble PM Shri Modi Ji's vision of India's leadership in the global efforts to combat climate change, and establish us as reliable, sustainable source of lowest cost green ammonia and green molecules to catalyse India's and the world's decarbonization."

For ONGC, the project will act as a stepping stone to achieving its RE targets as per the company's Energy Strategy 2040, and reduce its carbon footprint by moving into the renewables space.