By Business India Editorial

One of India’s fastest-growing oil trading portfolios, Adani, and France’s NG Supervisor Toot Energy have jointly formed a plant to create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem. 

French giant TotalEnergies will buy a quarter of the equity in Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL), a part of Gautam Adani’s eponymous group. The Adani group did not disclose the value of the deal. Instead, it said ANIL will invest $50 billion over 10 years in green hydrogen. In the initial phase, it will build a production capacity of 1 million tonnes a year for green hydrogen before 2030.

ANIL is critical to Adani’s ambition of becoming the world’s cheapest producer of green hydrogen, the zero-emission fuel that can propel the world’s decarbonisation drive but has yet to be produced in a way that makes it commercially viable.

This new partnership will focus on Green Hydrogen and is expected to transform the energy landscape in India. Adani and Total Energies are both at the forefront of energy transition and clean energy adoption.

Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, said, “The strategic value, business and interest is very high at both the levels. In order to become the biggest green hider engine player in the world, Tot Partnership with Engz brings together multiple dimensions which include R&D, market access and end consumer demand.

“We look forward to the continued expansion of our alliances of all kinds of special interests. Like the world's most expensive electronics, we believe in our ability to produce the world's most expensive greenhouse gas. This partnership will open up many exciting downstream avenues,” he said. 

“Renewable and low-carbon hydrogen is a major driver in implementing the strategy, where we can achieve our goal by 2030. Not only do we want to decarbonise the hydrogen used in European refineries, but also meet the bill demand. We are also at the fore in the production of Green Hydrogen on a large scale,” he added.

Mukesh Ambani, with whom Adani has been swapping the position of being Asia’s richest, has ambitions of his own. In January, he announced a $75-billion push in renewables infrastructure, in which green hydrogen is said to have a pride of place. Last year, the Reliance Industries Chairman talked about producing green hydrogen at $1 a kg – the lowest cost in the world and about 60 per cent lower than what it is today. He said Reliance will “aggressively pursue” the $1 a kg target and “achieve it well before the turn of this decade”.

Energy goes green

The Adani Group had in 2020 said it would invest 70 per cent of the budgeted capex of its energy vertical in clean energy and energy-efficient systems. In June 2021, Reliance announced its foray into green energy with investments worth Rs75,000 crore in the ensuing three years. Two months later, Adani followed suit by announcing a $20-billion investment over 10 years in the renewable energy supply chain, including power generation, manufacturing, transmission and distribution.

Adani Enterprises, which recently launched its arm, Adani Petrochemicals, plans to offer a range of green fuels and use its supply chains and renewable energy units for their production and transport. The company plans to make green hydrogen, green methanol, green ammonia and green fertiliser.

“This future production capacity of 1 million tonne per annum of green hydrogen will be a major step in increasing TotalEnergies’ share of new decarbonised molecules including biofuels, biogas, hydrogen, and e-fuels to 25 per cent of its energy production and sales by 2050,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.

The deal announced on Tuesday is the fourth between Adani Group and Total. In 2021, the French major picked up a 20 percent stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd, the renewable power company of the Adani Group. In 2020, Total and Adani formed a 50-50 joint venture at an enterprise value of Rs17,385 crore for 2.3 Gw of solar assets. In 2019, Total had acquired 37.4 per cent in Adani Gas and 50 pe rcent in the group’s Dhamra LNG project.