Hydrogen comes in many shades: gray from natural gas, blue with carbon capture, pink from nuclear. But only green hydrogen promises a net-zero future. The challenge? It won’t get there on optimism alone.
India has the renewables. It has the ambition. But, here’s the question: How fast can it build the infrastructure to make green hydrogen affordable at scale?
Electrolyzers are getting cheaper, and renewable power costs keep falling. Yet, the logistics of moving, storing, and delivering hydrogen can account for nearly half the final price. India risks producing hydrogen that’s too expensive to use. With the right logistics, it could position itself as a leader in green hydrogen. Here are four ways to make cost-competitive hydrogen a reality.
Where should hydrogen’s journey begin? Rajasthan’s and Kutch’s deserts and shipped across the country, or closer to industrial hubs like Odisha’s steel plants?
The wrong location can erase cost savings. But the right one can bend the cost curve in India’s favor. Analyses show that integrated projects optimized for siting, thermodynamics, and logistics can reduce costs by 30 to 70%. That’s the payoff of starting in the right place.
Once you know where to start, the next challenge is how to connect production to demand.
Pipelines are the most economical long-term option. But until they scale, India will rely on trucks, ships, and hybrid systems that carry hydrogen as gas, liquid, or ammonia. Poorly designed links balloon costs and stall adoption.
That’s why integrated corridors matter. Think of them as arteries of a green economy that connects Rajasthan’s renewables to North India’s industries or Gujarat’s ports to export markets. Corridors that carry hydrogen alongside ammonia, CO₂, or methanol create efficiency and resilience, not bottlenecks.
Once hydrogen is moving, the next question is: Where do you store it?
Relying on one storage method is risky. Betting on liquid hydrogen alone where liquefaction consumes about 30% of energy could be costly. Meanwhile, caverns are limited by geology.
The answer is diversification. Hydrogen storage should act like a portfolio that balances risk, stability, and scale:
Layered storage: pipelines for daily flows, ammonia for monthly balancing, caverns for seasonal stockpiling fuels resilience.
Who should consume hydrogen first? Heavy industry. Refineries, fertilizer plants, and steel mills are the big drinkers at the hydrogen table. By 2030, clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Gujarat can act as anchor customers that prove commercial viability and build confidence throughout the value chain.
These hubs don’t just consume hydrogen, they stress-test storage systems, corridors, and policies before scaling nationally.
India has the resources and demand. What it needs now is the connective tissue: smart siting, resilient corridors, layered storage, and policy to accelerate the implementation of integrated hydrogen value chain
As the fuel of the future, green hydrogen can be India’s competitive edge today while Bringing Decarbonization to Life®.
Read the full paper for a deeper dive into India’s green hydrogen journey.