Adani says green hydrogen can repeat solar’s path to low costs

Billionaire ports-to-coal tycoon Gautam Adani has called for a renewed global focus on lowering green hydrogen prices to spur the clean fuel’s adoption in emissions intensive industries.

Lowering costs from $3 to $5 per kilogram to $1 per kilogram would make the energy source a viable tool for decarbonization across many sectors, Adani wrote in a World Economic Forum blog post dated Jan. 16. “The decrease in solar costs can be replicated with green hydrogen,” he said. 

Adani New Industries Ltd. plans to begin production of the clean fuel from 2027 in the Gujarat state and could invest as much as $50 billion over 10 years, according to the company. “The most significant near-term reductions will come from large-scale, vertically integrated projects encompassing the entire supply chain,” Adani said in the blog post.

An early focus for a clean hydrogen sector will likely be on production of derivatives like green ammonia and methanol, because of current challenges facing the transportation of the fuel, Adani wrote. Producing fossil-fuel free ammonia domestically for use in fertilizers would help limit India’s exposure to import prices.

Adani and rivals including Mukesh Ambani are adding plans to enter clean hydrogen production as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes the technology as a major part of the nation’s effort to hit net zero emissions by 2070.