V O Chidambaranar Port Authority, the state-owned entity that runs the port at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, has issued a letter of intent to ACME Cleantech Solutions Pvt Ltd to lease 222.79 acres of port land for setting up a green hydrogen and green ammonia project with an investment of Rs52,474 crore.
V O Chidambaranar Port has become the first port in India to allocate land for production and export of green hydrogen. The land will be leased on annual rentals set by the port authority for 30 years, government sources said.
V O C Port Authority has also leased 10 acres of land to ReNew Power Ltd for storage and export of green hydrogen and ammonia.
The ACME plant will produce 3,000 tonnes per day of hydrogen.ACME and ReNew Power were among 25 entities that responded to an expression of interest issued by V O C Port Authority to set up green hydrogen and green ammonia projects on port land.
“This is among the initiatives taken by V O C Port Authority to develop a complete green hydrogen ecosystem for industries and become India’s export hub for green hydrogen,” a government official said.
As round-the-clock availability of adequate renewable energy is key to the production of green hydrogen, the port authority has also lined up a 5 MW solar plant, a 2 MW wind farm, a 60 MW hybrid wind solar plant, a mega offshore wind plant and a desalination plant on public-private-partnership (PPP) mode to support the project, the official stated.
The port authority is also in discussions with state owned firms such as Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and NTPC Ltd to cater to their green hydrogen ambitions, the official added.
V O C Port is one of the two major ports (other being Deendayal Port in Kandla, Gujarat) identified by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways to house green hydrogen and green ammonia plants in the country.
The ACME facility will be one of the largest plants in India and potentially the largest in the world. The plant will produce green hydrogen and ammonia, which will help de-carbonize sectors such as fertilizers, power, refining and steel, among others.
The project will comprise 5,000 mw of solar PV plant, 1.5 GW of electrolyser and 1.1 million tonnes of ammonia synthesis loop.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysers. The electrolysis itself is powered by energy from renewable resources such as wind and solar.
ACME seeks to become one of the world’s top green energy providers by 2030, producing 10 million tons a year of green ammonia and hydrogen, the Gurugram-based company said on its website.
ACME said it has started working with various governments, partners, and stakeholders to develop projects in Oman, India, Egypt, Australia, and Chile.
“We are committed to bring sustainability in some of the toughest sectors to decarbonize like food, agriculture, steel, shipping, cement and aluminium,” the company said.
ACME has set up the world’s first integrated pilot project for green hydrogen and green ammonia at Bikaner in Rajasthan. Green hydrogen will be produced using 5 MW power from the solar plant, scalable to 10 MW. The plant will help save some 4,400 tons a year of CO2 emissions.
ACME is also setting up a world-scale green hydrogen and green ammonia project at the special economic zone in Duqm, Oman, with an investment of some $ 5-6 billion. The facility aims to export green ammonia to demand centres in Europe and Asia.
The first phase of the facility is expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually and will be expanded to 1.2 million tonnes per annum with about 3.5 GW of electrolyser capacity, which will be powered by a 5.5 GW solar PV plant.
The Company has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Karnataka government to invest about Rs52,000 crore in the state to set up a green hydrogen and green ammonia project. An MoU was also signed with the Odisha government for a project in the state.
India has set a 5 million tonnes a year green hydrogen production target by 2030 to strengthen the country’s energy security and also help reduce about 50 million metric tons of carbon emissions and save more than $12 billion on fossil fuel imports.
Most of the 5 million tons of hydrogen consumed in the country is produced with fossil fuels.
In January, the government approved an incentive plan to promote green hydrogen that would cover at least 10 percent of the production cost.
The government has also waived off inter-state transmission fees for hydrogen manufacturing plants commissioned before June 2025.
India’s distinct advantage in low-cost renewable energy generation makes green hydrogen the most competitive form of hydrogen in the long run, says a 2022 report on ‘Harnessing Green Hydrogen’ written by the NITI Aayog and RMI.
“This enables India to potentially be one of the most competitive producers of green hydrogen in the world. Green hydrogen can achieve cost parity with natural gas-based hydrogen (grey hydrogen) by 2030, if not before. Beyond cost, since hydrogen is only as clean as its source of generation, green hydrogen will be necessary to achieve a truly low carbon economy. It will also enable the emergence of a domestically produced energy carrier that can reduce the dependence on imports for key commodities like natural gas and petroleum,” the report said.
Hydrogen demand in India could grow more than fourfold by 2050, representing almost 10 percent of global hydrogen demand.
From a price parity basis alone, green hydrogen’s share of this demand could grow from 16 percent in 2030 to almost 94 percent by 2050. This translates to an implied cumulative electrolyser capacity demand of 20 GW by 2030 and 226 GW by 2050, promising a sizeable opportunity for indigenous manufacturing of a global emerging energy technology.
The cumulative value of the green hydrogen market in India could be $8 billion by 2030 and $340 billion by 2050. Electrolyser market size could be approximately $5 billion by 2030 and $31 billion by 2050.
Adoption of green hydrogen will also result in 3.6 giga tonnes of cumulative CO2 emissions reductions between 2020 and 2050. Energy import savings from green hydrogen can range from $246 billion to $358 billion within the same period. Beyond the financial savings, the energy security that green hydrogen provides will translate to less volatile price inputs for India’s industries as well as strengthen India’s foreign exchange situation in the long run, the report added.
