Several firms have signed preliminary agreements for large-scale renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects in India's Andhra Pradesh state.
A total of 75 preliminary agreements in the energy space were signed at last week's Andhra Pradesh Global Investor Summit 2023, its organisers said, although only some include plans for renewable hydrogen and ammonia production sites. Information was not immediately available on all the agreements that were signed, but planned projects by just five companies could already provide renewable ammonia output of over 6mn t/yr.
ABC Cleantech, a subsidiary of solar and wind energy firm Axis Energy, intends to set up a 2mn t/yr renewable ammonia facility in the state, potentially at Ramayapatnam port in the Nellore district, according to Andhra Pradesh's new and renewable energy development corporation (NREDCAP), a state government firm. The company also plans to install 6.5GW of renewable power generation capacity, NREDCAP said.
Renewables firm ReNew Power is targeting a plant that could produce 3,000 t/d, or around 1.1mn t/yr, of renewable ammonia, together with other renewable hydrogen derivatives, according to NREDCAP. This could be accompanied by 4.7GW of renewable power installations and voluntary carbon projects in the state.
Fellow renewables developer Avaada Energy is looking at 1mn t/yr of renewable ammonia production capacity in Kakinada in the north of the state, NREDCAP said.
A similarly-sized plant was announced by Abu Dhabi-based Ocior Energy. The firm said its preliminary agreement with the state government foresees "development of green hydrogen and ammonia projects in the state", suggesting that it may eventually be looking at more than one project. Its announcement for plans in Andhra Pradesh followed just over a week after Ocior said it had struck a similar deal with the government of Gujarat. The firm also has plans for 1mn t/yr renewable ammonia production sites in the east Indian state of Odisha and in Egypt.
Renewables developer Greenko also struck a preliminary agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government, which includes plans for a previously-announced production site in Kakinada. Greenko may be a step ahead of other developers, having already found a potential offtaker for 250,000 t/yr of renewable ammonia from the first phase of its project in German state-owned utility Uniper. Eventually the site could produce 1mn t/yr, according to Greenko's plans. NREDCAP also listed development of a potential renewable hydrogen hub in Machilipatnam as part of Greenko's agreement with the state government.
Many of the companies have made plans for similar projects elsewhere in India. The state of Karnataka last year announced a similar flurry of preliminary deals, including with ABC Cleanteach, Avaada and ReNew Power.
It remains to be seen how many of the planned projects actually go ahead. Andhra Pradesh minister for industries, IT, investment and commerce is hopeful that around 90pc of all preliminary agreements — across all sectors — will be turned into "realistic investment", based on the state's recent track record for similar deals. The state will set up a monitoring committee to track progress on the agreements on a weekly basis, he said.
States across India have been vying to become frontrunners in renewable hydrogen and ammonia production, as the central government is looking to boost the sector through extensive subsidy schemes.
