Indian infrastructure and engineering behemoth Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced on Thursday (Jan 27) that it is teaming up with Norway’s HydrogenPro to make gigawatt-scale green hydrogen electrolysers in India.

Under this agreement, L&T and HydrogenPro will jointly work towards setting up of a joint venture in India for gigawatt-scale manufacturing of alkaline water electrolysers based on HydrogenPro technology for Indian market and other select geographies.

Norway-based HydrogenPro is a leading electrolyser technology and manufacturing company. The company is targeting a production cost for green hydrogen of $1.2 per kg in 2022. Its core offering is an alkaline high-pressure electrolyser. With the new electrode technology, the company say that the the cost of electric power, that constitutes 70-90% of the cost of producing hydrogen, can be reduced.

L&T said the proposed joint venture “is in line with its strategic vision to be present across the green energy value chain and HydrogenPro’s strategy of establishing a global manufacturing footprint”.

L & T CEO said that the energy industry is undergoing a tectonic shift with Green Hydrogen emerging as a key fuel in the future energy basket.

"We are delighted to have signed this MoUwith HydrogenPro. This will be a win-win partnership given our extensive relationship across the energy industry, deep EPC experience in this sector and successful ongoing collaborations with many MNCs and HydrogenPro’s focus to stay ahead of the curve as far as technology leadership is concerned” he added

“We’re extremely pleased to enter this Memorandum of Understanding with L&T, an E&C powerhouse which is the perfect partner to establish HydrogenPro in the Indian market, a huge and growing energy market with tremendous potential for hydrogen-based solutions,” said Elling Nygaard, CEO of HydrogenPro.

India's Green Hydrogen Ambitions

India has unveiled the world’s largest expansion plan for renewable energy transition, with a target of 175GW of renewables by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030.

India is considered to be highly suitable for green hydrogen production due to the low generation costs of renewable electricity from abundantly available solar PV and wind power sources.

India aims to be among the world’s largest Green Hydrogen hubs and has plan for using the same across the sectors.

India hopes to achieve energy security by reducing the ever-increasing energy import bill and a pathway to green alternative for “hard-to-abate” industries, like refineries, fertilisers, steel, and transport.

Green Hydrogen demand in India is estimated to grow up to 2 MMTPA (Million Metric Tonne Per Annum) by 2030 in line with the nation’s Green Hydrogen Mission, which would call for investments upward of $60 billion.