New Delhi: Acme Cleantech Solutions has emerged as the lowest bidder in India’s first auction for the supply of green ammonia under the government’s Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) scheme. The company will supply 75,000 tonnes of green ammonia to Paradeep Phosphate Ltd at its facility in Paradeep at a price of ₹55.75 per kilogram, reports The Economic Times.
This is the lowest price discovered in any such tender to date.
“The first auction for green ammonia under the SIGHT Scheme (Mode-2A) has resulted in a record-low bid of ₹55.75 per kg,” the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which conducted the auction, said in a statement.
At around $641 per tonne, the discovered price is a sharp drop from the $1,153 per tonne seen in the earlier H2Global auction. For comparison, the cost of grey ammonia was about $515 per tonne as of March 2025.
SECI noted that this fixed-price, 10-year contract offers a compelling reason for buyers to move toward cleaner fuels and begin their energy transition journey.
The auction was part of a tender for the production and supply of 724,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually to 13 fertilizer plants across the country. Some of the buyers listed in the tender include IFFCO in Kandla, Madras Fertilisers in Manali and Chennai, Indorama India in Haldia, Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilisers in Panambur, and Coromandel International in Visakhapatnam.
Because of the complexity of evaluating bids for each plant, the price discovery process was carried out in phases, an industry official said.
SECI will act as the aggregator and will sign long-term agreements with the suppliers, offering them certainty of demand for a 10-year period.
The tender was issued in June 2024 and closed on July 10, after several deadline extensions. It is backed by the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which offers financial support through production-linked incentives (PLI) of ₹8.82/kg, ₹7.06/kg, and ₹5.30/kg for the first three years respectively. In total, ₹1,533.4 crore has been allocated in support.
India currently uses around 17–19 million tonnes of ammonia each year, with more than half of its hydrogen needs in fertilizer production met through imported natural gas.
According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, green hydrogen produces less than 2 kg of carbon dioxide per kilogram, compared to as much as 12 kg from conventional grey hydrogen.
