Greenko ZeroC, the green molecule production arm of the Hyderabad-based Greenko group, and Uniper, a Germany-based energy company, have begun negotiations for the offtake of 250,000 tons per annum of green ammonia to the EU.

The green ammonia is proposed to be supplied from Phase 1 of Greenko ZeroC’s ammonia production facility in Kakinada.

Greenko and Uniper would negotiate pricing, supply, and tenure structure for the supply and purchase agreement of green ammonia.

The agreement, when finalized, will help open up access for Indian exporters to the EU market for the export of energy in the form of green ammonia and green hydrogen.

Niek den Hollander, CCO of Uniper, said, “Decarbonization is one of the major challenges of our time and needs quick action. Therefore, we at Uniper are happy to contribute to the acceleration of the energy transition with our partner Greenko. The Greenko Kakinada project is a very promising opportunity to source green ammonia and secure the supply of low-carbon hydrogen products for Germany.”

The Kakinada unit is a multi-phase production and export facility, which is expected to add up to 1 MTPA of green ammonia production capacity by 2027.

The project’s first phase produces ammonia based on electrolyzers and is powered by round-the-clock (RTC) renewable energy from 2.5 GW projects. It is supported by the company’s Pinnapuram Integrated Renewable Energy Storage project to tackle the intermittency issues of renewable production.

The RTC power is said to help achieve a high annual plant load factor of upwards of 85%, allowing for a flexible and dispatchable supply of green ammonia.

Anil Chalmalasetty, CEO, Founder, and Managing Director of Greenko, said, “We are extremely delighted to partner with Uniper through this offtake agreement for our project, which will eventually displace LNG imports and strengthen India’s green molecule ambitions as part of a wider renewable energy program that will see India run the world’s largest energy transition program.”

Aside from green ammonia, Uniper and Greenko also intend to collaborate on deploying similar flexible renewable electricity to other hydrogen products such as e-methanol and sustainable aviation fuels.

Greenko Group has an installed capacity of 7.5 GW across solar, wind, and hydro assets spread over 100 projects across 15 states in India.

The company recently entered into a partnership with Belgium-based engineering company John Cockerill for the supply of 140 MW alkaline electrolyzers to develop a green ammonia project in Himachal Pradesh, India.

In December last year, HINT.CO, a subsidiary of the H2Global Foundation, launched the first tender for green ammonia imports from outside the European Union. The project’s estimated value is €360 million (~$386.58 million).

In January this year, India approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission to facilitate demand creation, production, utilization, and export of green hydrogen with an initial outlay of ₹197.44 billion (~$2.39 billion).