The price discovered is the lowest in any such tender.
“The first-ever auction conducted by SECI for the procurement of green ammonia under the SIGHT Scheme (Mode-2A) has achieved a record low price discovery of ₹55.75/kg,” the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which conducted the auction, said.
The discovered price translates to around $641/tonne, a substantial drop from the previously discovered price of $1,153/tonne in the H2Global auction, it said.
With grey Ammonia prices reaching $515/tonne as of March 2025, this 10-year fixed-price bid provides strong economic rationale for off takers to initiate their clean energy transition journey, SECI said.
The tender called for the production and supply of 724,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually across 13 fertilizer plants in this tranche which were listed in the tender.Some of the procurers enlisted in the bidding document were Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) in Kandla, Madras Fertilisers’ Manali and Chennai units, Indorama India in Haldia, Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilisers’ Panambur unit and Coromandel International’s Visakhapatnam unit.The reverse auction for price discovery is being done separately for each plant and in phases because of the complexity of bid evaluation, according to an industry official.
SECI anchored the demand aggregation and will sign long-term offtake agreements, providing producers with market certainty over a 10-year contract period.
The tender was issued in June 2024 and the last date was July 10 after many extensions over the year.
The government is offering financial incentives under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, with Production Linked Incentives (PLI) of Rs 8.82/kg, Rs 7.06/kg, and Rs 5.30/kg for the first three years respectively, amounting to a total support of Rs 1,533.4 crore.
India consumes approximately 17-19 million tonnes of ammonia annually, with more than 50% of its hydrogen requirement used in fertilizer production.
However, most of this is derived from imported natural gas.
Producing green hydrogen emits less than 2 kg of CO₂ per kilogram, compared to up to 12 kg CO₂ from conventional grey hydrogen, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
