India aims to outpace China in green hydrogen production
What's the story
India is targeting to produce five million metric tons of green hydrogen annually by 2030. This ambitious goal is five times the current size of the global market and nearly double what analysts expect China to achieve in that same time frame. The Indian government's National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched in 2023 with a ₹19,744 crore budget, has been instrumental in this push.
Mission details
National Green Hydrogen Mission's progress
The National Green Hydrogen Mission has leveraged competitive reverse auctions to bring down production costs from around $5 per kilogram at launch to nearly $3 today. Abhay Bakre, the mission head, told Reuters that they expect to reduce this further to $2 per kilogram by 2032. As of February 2026, about 8,000 tons/year capacity has been commissioned under this mission with suppliers and fertilizer companies signing offtake agreements for 724,000 tons/year of green ammonia.
China's progress
China's advancements in green hydrogen sector
China has also made major strides in the green hydrogen sector. The country's $2 billion Chifeng project in Inner Mongolia, the world's biggest, is already exporting green ammonia to South Korea. Rystad Energy projects that China will have 2.6 million tons/year online by 2031. In high-resource regions, production costs have fallen to around $2 per kilogram, nearly matching coal-based hydrogen prices.
Strategic approaches
Demand-supply coordination tackled by both nations
Both India and China have tackled the demand-supply coordination problem that has hindered Western ambitions. India has done this by linking production subsidies with assured government offtake from state-run refineries and fertilizer plants. Meanwhile, China has relied on state-led industrial planning. This strategy has led to commercially viable projects right from financial close, instead of depending on demand that may take years to materialize.
Corporate involvement
Companies involved in India's green hydrogen push
Four companies, L&T, BPCL, GAIL, and JSW Steel, have been identified under the National Green Hydrogen Mission. While L&T builds electrolyzer plants and hydrogen infrastructure without producing hydrogen itself, BPCL has captive demand as its refineries are offtake customers under the government's auction program. GAIL's gas pipeline network is crucial for blending and transporting hydrogen, while JSW Energy is already supplying green hydrogen for commercial steel production with a 3,800 tons/year project underway.