Knowledge session on German Funding Schemes for Green Hydrogen Projects in India
A knowledge sharing session on German funding schemes for green hydrogen projects in India was organised as part of the second meeting of the Subworking Group on Finance, Insurance Industry and Trading under the Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force on 22 March 2023 by the Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF-SO).
Mr. Tapas Kapadia, CEO, RWE Supply & Trading India, opened the session by highlighting that the topic of the day had been identified by the participants at the last subworking group meeting as a key deliverable. Dr. Martin Lux, Head Energy Team, KfW Delhi Office offered his welcome remarks by briefly highlighting the green hydrogen funding instruments available today.
The first presentation was on “German Funding for Green Hydrogen Projects in India” by Mr. Tobias Winter, Director IGEF-SO Mr. Winter informed that since 90% of the hydrogen demand in Germany in 2030 will have to be fulfilled by imports, there is an urgent need to create an international hydrogen strategy. He took the participants through the different German funding options for Indian projects, such as the HintCo. Tender wherein the deadline for the green ammonia tender has been extended, along with the funding guideline supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), and the H2UPPP Program.
KfW Development Bank offers different funding instruments for green hydrogen projects today via the PtX Platform PTX-Plattform | KfW Entwicklungsbank (kfw-entwicklungsbank.de). Mr. Karim ould Chih, Principal Portfolio Manager, KfW, presented on “PtX Development Fund and PtX Growth Fund”. The PtX-Platform is a global KfW initiative consisting of the development and the growth fund which provides customized financing with the aim to close bankability gaps in industrial PtX projects in non-EU countries. Until now the grant funding (around 570 million Euro) has been provided by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and BMWK. While the goal of the growth fund is to support companies with a branch office in Germany and to create diversified hydrogen partnerships globally, the development fund will support developing countries in creating local value chains, jobs in the hydrogen sector and a future source of income for the countries.
The session concluded with an open discussion on the funding opportunities for specific industries, as well as different finance options for green hydrogen projects in India through a mix of different KfW products. A few participants also wished to learn about CO2 certificates, and can refer to the session on CO2 certificates as an additional revenue stream here: Perspectives (Philipp Veh) - CO2 Certificates as Additional Revenue Stream for Green Hydrogen - YouTube
A unified decision was taken amongst the participants that the next deliverable of this meeting would be the organisation of another session with KfW to share knowledge on the processes involved from the application to disbursement for private sector projects.