It has been an exciting month for India’s growing green ammonia sector, with back-to-back successful auctions and record low price discovery. While the sector has been grappling with high prices and regulatory uncertainties, the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) tender for the offtake of 724,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of green ammonia across 13 fertiliser plants has found many willing bidders.
These 13 auctions, conducted by SECI as part of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, will provide market certainty to green ammonia producers over a 10-year contract period along with production-linked incentives of Rs 8.82 per kg, Rs 7.06 per kg and Rs 5.30 per kg for the first three years, respectively. So far, these auctions have witnessed prices that are about 10 times lower than the current price of grey ammonia.
Nine auctions have been conducted so far under this tender for supplying green ammonia to various fertiliser units across the country, a step towards the decarbonisation of this highly energy-intensive sector. ACME Cleantech has won four of these auctions – 75,000 tpa at Rs 55.75 per kg, 50,000 tpa at Rs 51.89 per kg, 100,000 tpa at Rs 54.73 per kg and 100,000 tpa at a record low price of Rs 49.75 per kg – setting new benchmarks in the global green ammonia race.
Other winners include NTPC Renewable Energy (70,000 tpa at Rs 51.80 per kg), Oriana Power (60,000 tpa at Rs 52.25 per kg), a consortium of SSC Infrastructure and InSolare Energy (70,000 tpa at Rs 53.05 per kg), Onix Renewable (50,000 tpa at Rs 52.50 per kg), and Jakson Green (85,000 tpa at Rs 50.75 per kg).
Four more auctions are expected to be conducted over the next few days, attracting more investments in the country’s green ammonia sector, which is becoming strategically important for reducing both emissions and imports.
The success of these consecutive auctions signals India’s growing price competitiveness in the global green ammonia space. Now, the priority is to ensure rapid project implementation and scale up in other hard-to-abate sectors.
