India’s renewable energy ministry has published a model electrolyser-as-a-service agreement, letting industrial firms buy green hydrogen from developer-owned plants on site instead of funding their own electrolysers.
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has published a model “electrolyser-as-a-service” agreement to lower the cost of entry into green hydrogen. The framework sits under the National Green Hydrogen Mission and targets industrial users.
Under a build-own-operate model, technology developers set up, own and run electrolyser plants at a customer’s site. The industrial user buys the hydrogen and oxygen produced instead of building its own plant. The developer keeps responsibility for owning and operating the equipment.
The structure removes the upfront capital that has slowed industrial uptake of green hydrogen. Steel, refining, fertiliser and chemicals makers can switch to lower-carbon hydrogen without financing an electrolyser themselves. The National Green Hydrogen Mission targets 5 million tonnes of annual green hydrogen production by 2030, and industrial demand is central to that goal.
The model sets a 15-year operating period that begins once the plant passes a performance guarantee test. Payment is a fixed monthly fee covering equipment leasing and operating costs, revised each year in line with the consumer price index. The agreement also fixes standards for output, purity, energy use and plant availability, with incentives for efficiency and penalties for shortfalls.
Industrial consumers must supply utilities and site infrastructure, obtain environmental and safety approvals, and secure green hydrogen certification under MNRE rules. Equipment must meet domestic content procurement requirements and national land-border trade rules, reflecting India’s push to build a local electrolyser industry.
MNRE stressed the document is a template only. Both parties can adjust its terms to fit a project’s technical, commercial and financial needs. The ministry frames it as a way to standardise a young market and cut negotiation time rather than dictate deal terms.
For India’s hard-to-abate industries, the service model shifts green hydrogen from a capital project to an operating cost. That can bring in users who lack the balance sheet or appetite to own production. Uptake will still depend on the delivered price of hydrogen against cheaper grey hydrogen, and on the pace of the wider mission.
