Strengthening India’s green hydrogen ecosystem
Worldwide, renewable energy use is increasing. In the first half of 2025, renewable energy outpaced coal as the leading source of electricity for the first time, according to statistics from the global energy think tank Ember.
In India, renewable energy use (including solar, wind and hydropower) accounts for over 20% of the country’s energy needs, Ember reports. Green hydrogen adoption across various sectors, including industry and agriculture, could further improve these percentages.
InSolare Energy plans to establish a 250- to 300-megawatt manufacturing facility, scalable up to 1-gigawatt for AEM electrolyzers in India, to meet domestic demand and select international market needs.
Hydrogen is essential to improve agricultural production, when it is used to make ammonia commonly used to fertilize crops such as corn, which is one of the top three staple crops worldwide. India is among the top producers of corn, accounting for about 3% of the world’s corn production annually.
Yan explained that a 1-gigawatt electrolyzer working at full capacity can produce about 1 million metric tons of ammonia and fertilize about 10 million acres of corn per year while avoiding more than 1.5 metric tons of carbon emissions, compared to conventional ammonia production processes.
The potential of many gigawatt electrolyzers working together—in India or elsewhere—is far greater.
These are important considerations as the world’s population continues to expand, even as the amount of viable agricultural land remains finite.
Expanding Versogen’s international footprint
Yan called the partnership with InSolare a promising step in growing the company’s market position internationally.
“In building Versogen, ‘locally integrated and globally recognized’ has been our philosophy from the very beginning. Our partnership with InSolare, and the fact that the announcement was made in India by our governor, reflect the success of that approach,” said Yan. “With this partnership, we now have a new, powerful engine to accelerate our membrane business.”
This type of cooperation shows how joining forces to move innovations to market can produce the gains needed to achieve sustainable societal impact.
The partnership is set to play a pivotal role in India’s energy transition, supporting India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission to decarbonize industry, foster innovation and build a robust domestic electrolyzer manufacturing ecosystem.
“This collaboration with Versogen is a significant step in advancing India’s clean energy future,” said Hemanshu Bhatt, founder-director of InSolare Energy. “By integrating Versogen’s world-class AEM technology with our manufacturing and project expertise, we are accelerating the adoption of cost-effective green hydrogen solutions that directly support India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission targets.”
India’s government has set a target of 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen production annually by 2030.
Developing the future workforce
Training the future workforce for this growing sector is an important part of bolstering the emerging green hydrogen economy.
Anil Bika, director of workforce development at UD’s Center for Clean Hydrogen, was part of a Delaware delegation led by Governor Matt Meyer that traveled to India on a trade mission. As part of the trip, Bika visited with leadership and professors at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Tirupati, to discuss collaborations to foster greater progress on clean energy problems, and the potential for faculty, staff and student exchange.
