NTPC set to start work on India’s largest green hydrogen hub in AP

Visakhapatnam: In a bid to give a big push to the decarbonised economy, Maharatna NTPC has decided to take up work on India's largest integrated green hydrogen hub at Pudimadaka in Atchutapuram mandal near here through its fully owned subsidiary.

Officials said the project for which MoU was signed with Andhra Pradesh government at the Global Investors' Summit nearly a year ago with an estimated investment of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in two phases, will be implemented by NTPC Green Energy Limited (NGEL). Required studies for the project have already been completed. The project will have a production capacity of 1200 tonnes per day.

The project implementation is expected to gain steam with the NGEL recently signing a land lease agreement with AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) in an area of 1200 acres. The same land, in close proximity to NTPC Simhadri and Asian Paints plant was earlier allotted to NTPC to establish a 4000 MW coal-fired ultra mega power plant with supercritical technology.

The project for which foundation stone was laid in 2015 was officially shelved in 2018 due to the government of India's focus on domestic coal production. The proposed plant was designed on the basis of imported coal. For the allotment of the site, NTPC then had paid

part-payment.

With the signing of a land lease agreement with the APIIC, now all problems with regard to the site have been sorted out. The Maharatna company in its corporate vision has given focus on green energy and green hydrocarbons contributing significantly to government of India's energy transition. As per the agreement, NGEL will establish an ‘integrated green hydrogen hub.'

The Pudimadaka green hydrogen hub has been conceived with an objective to create a world-class ecosystem for technologies in the new energy paradigm, such as electrolyser and fuel cell manufacturing, related ancillary industries and startup, incubation, testing facilities, production and export of green hydrogen and its derivatives such as green ammonia and green methanol. "This will be India's largest hydrogen production hub," a senior official of NTPC said.

The land lease deed was exchanged between Chief General Manager, NGEL Sivakumar VV and Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, APIIC Pravin Kumar at Velagapudi in the presence of Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh KS Jawahar Reddy; Executive Director, NTP R Sarangapani and other senior officials. NTPC Group has set an ambitious plan for achieving 60 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2032. At present, it has 3.4 GW of installed renewable energy and projects under pipeline to generate over 22 GW.