Moneycontrol | India Energy Week 2023: Uniper, Greenko sign pact for green ammonia offtake from Andhra Pradesh plant

Feb 08,2023

Uniper, a Düsseldorf-based international energy company and Greenko ZeroC Private Limited, the green molecule production arm of the Greenko Group, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)on February 7 for off-taking green ammonia from an India plant - a move that is touted to open the gates for the export of energy to Europe.

Through the pact, Uniper has entered into exclusive negotiations for the offtake of green ammonia from Phase 1 of Greenko ZeroC’s ammonia production facility in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

Greenko and Uniper now intend to negotiate the pricing, supply and tenure structure for a supply and purchase agreement for 250,000 tons per annum of Green Ammonia (GASPA) based on the Heads of Terms.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Hardeep Singh Puri, India's minister of petroleum and natural gas at the India Energy Week 2023 in Bengaluru.

The government has set an ambitious target of capturing about 10 percent of the global green hydrogen/green ammonia market, which is expected to touch 100 million metric tonne (MMT) by 2030, senior officials in the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) informed.

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Greenko’s Kakinada project is a multi-phase green ammonia production and export facility, adding up to 1 MTPA of green ammonia production capacity by 2027. The first phase of Greenko’s facility in Kakinada produces green ammonia based on an electrolyser powered by round-the-clock (RTC) renewable electricity produced by 2.5 GW of renewable assets in India and reinforced by their Pinnapuram Integrated Renewable Energy Storage Plant (IRESP).

Niek den Hollander, CCO of Uniper said, “The Greenko Kakinada project is a very promising opportunity to source green ammonia and secure the supply of low carbon hydrogen products for Germany. We are very excited about the cooperation."

The key differentiator that sets this project apart is the integration of pumped storage plant to balance out the intermittent and seasonality of renewable production and achieve a high annual plant load factor
upwards of 85 percent, allowing for flexible and dispatchable supply of green ammonia competitively.

Apart from green ammonia, Uniper and Greenko also intend to collaborate on the deployment of similar flexible renewable electricity to other hydrogen products such as E-Methanol and Sustainable Aviation.

Anil Chalmalasetty, Chief Executive officer (CEO), founder and Managing Director (MD) of Greenko said, “Greenko is working towards decarbonisation solutions for a low-carbon economy. We are partnering with a world-class technology partner in John Cockerill and will jointly develop large-scale green molecule projects in India.”

On January 13, the government released a blueprint for its ambitious National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) with a total initial outlay of Rs 19,744 crore, of which Rs 17,490 crore will be for the production-linked incentives for producing green hydrogen and manufacturing electrolysers.