On 4th August, NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL) has won the second SECI auction under the SIGHT Scheme, securing a 10year contract to supply 70,000 tonnes annually of green ammonia to Krishana Phoschem at Meghnagar, Madhya Pradesh. The competitive ereverse auction produced a recordlow discovered price of ₹51.80/kg (approximately $591.25/ton), significantly sharpening price discovery compared to Round I, which saw ACME Cleantech win a 75,000 TPA tender at ₹55.75/kg (~$641/ton).
To ensure financial viability and stimulate early market adoption, particularly in price-sensitive sectors like fertilizers, the government is offering production-linked incentives for the first three years: ₹8.82/kg in year one, ₹7.06/kg in year two, and ₹5.30/kg in year three. This amounts to around ₹148.26 crore of subsidy to NTPC under the scheme.
This second round reinforces the trajectory toward cost efficiency and reflects growing developer confidence in India’s green hydrogen ecosystem. The tariff achieved is now competitive with conventional grey ammonia ($515/ton as of March 2025), and nearly half the price discovered in the landmark H2Global auction ($1,153/ton), illustrating that India’s green ammonia is on course to become globally competitive.
The longterm offtake agreement offers revenue confidence that is critical for developers and financial stakeholders. It dovetails with the broader National Green Hydrogen Mission, under which SECI has issued tenders amounting to 724,000 TPA across 13 fertilizer complexes, backed by ₹1,533 crore in Production Linked Incentives (PLIs) and a robust Payment Security Mechanism to enable bankable execution.
NTPC REL now has the task of securing land, regulatory approvals and building the required ammonia production facility. They must arrange green power supply, from colocated, remote, or thirdparty renewable projects and ensure logistics and delivery to the offtaker site. Up to 10 percent of the supply may be sourced externally, giving project flexibility and execution resilience.
The dramatic drop in tariff between the first and second auctions shows how price competition and investor confidence are accelerating India’s march toward scale in the green ammonia space. The first round’s bid by ACME Cleantech at ₹55.75/kg (~$641/ton) was already hailed as a breakthrough; this second round establishes ₹51.80/kg as the new benchmark, pushing the industry closer to cost parity with conventional ammonia supplies and shifting the economics decisively toward clean molecules.
This isn’t merely a contract award, it’s a powerful signal to the market. With eleven more auctions pending under the SIGHT programme, price competition is expected to intensify, investment will flow into green hydrogen production and associated value chains, and India’s ambition to be a global player in clean molecule exports gathers momentum.
Above all, the result shows how transparent procurement frameworks, long-term offtake certainty, and governmentbacked credit support can break barriers in nascent clean fuel markets. For the agriculturechemical sector, it charts a path toward cleaner inputs and meaningful emissions reduction. For India’s energy transition, it represents another step toward self reliance and netzero goals.
