Brookfield’s proposed investment of up to $600 million in ACME Cleantech Ventures can help move India’s green-molecule industry from individual projects to global scale, ACME Group Chairman Manoj Kumar Upadhyay told in an exclusive interaction, as the renewable-energy developer prepares to build green-ammonia and methanol projects across India and Oman. Upadhyay said the investment comes as green-hydrogen projects globally have struggled with bankability, long-term offtake and infrastructure.
Q: What does Brookfield’s $600-million investment change for India in the global green-energy transition?
Three or four years ago, hydrogen and green ammonia started with a very big bang. But because of bankability issues, offtake issues, complexity and infrastructure gaps, projects got delayed worldwide.
India, however, is at the leading edge. Indian developers are attracting customers not only in India but globally. ACME has a joint venture with Japan’s IHI, while SECI’s green-ammonia tenders are creating domestic demand. Indian companies are now addressing markets including Europe, Korea and Japan.
The National Green Hydrogen Mission created policy consistency and gave companies like us the confidence to approach global customers and offer solutions from India.
What does the investment specifically change for ACME?
We started with our Bikaner proof-of-concept facility, which demonstrated how the entire photon-to-electron-to-molecule conversion could happen and what the costs could be. That gave customers confidence that the model was workable.
Brookfield now brings the institutional financial capability to complement our execution capacity and customer relationships and take green ammonia, green hydrogen and green methanol to much larger scale.
What exactly is Brookfield buying into, and where will the $600 million go?
The Brookfield funding is a structured-equity deal. ACME will deploy the capital across four projects: Oman Phase 2, two green-ammonia projects in Odisha, and a green-methanol project in Odisha.
The equity valuation is expected to be decided by the end of 2026. ACME will maintain a significant majority in its projects and business entities. Oman Phase 1 is already fully funded.
Why does a platform-level deal matter more than conventional project finance?
This is the first time it is not project finance, where somebody has come into one project. It is a platform-level deal. That means the investment can support a portfolio rather than being tied to a single project.
Can green ammonia follow solar’s transition from expensive megawatts to competitive gigawatt-scale deployment?
We have seen this transition before in solar. Solar started at around ₹15, but when tariffs came down to around ₹2.44, the industry stopped thinking in megawatts and started building gigawatts.
We want to play the same role in green ammonia. Scale, technology, and selecting locations with the strongest renewable-energy resources can bring costs down. If you want people to move from grey to green, you have to offer them a competitive price. Customers cannot be expected to pay an exorbitant price simply to make that transition.
Your Oman green-ammonia plant was expected earlier. Where does the project stand now?
The project is almost 90 per cent ready. We expect to start commissioning around November-December this year, and the plant should become operational in March 2027.
The project has been delayed by around two to three months because of the war. Once operational, it will give us our first export of green molecules from Oman to our customer.
ACME has won green-ammonia contracts at aggressive prices. Can those projects generate sustainable returns?
The difference between grey ammonia and green ammonia has reduced substantially. If you ask me today, grey ammonia is costlier than green ammonia.
Because of the Middle East war, gas prices have gone up significantly, and gas is the main raw material for producing grey ammonia. That has changed the relative economics.
SECI has told us that fertiliser companies that were earlier hesitant to buy green ammonia on long-term contracts are now approaching it for more tenders.
Ultimately, green ammonia has to be competitive on its own rather than depend indefinitely on customers paying a green premium.
What milestones should we watch to judge whether ACME is delivering on this scale-up?
Oman Phase 1 is targeted to become operational by March 2027. The Paradeep green-ammonia project in Odisha, where we have an offtake agreement with SECI, is targeted for 2028, as is our Odisha green-methanol project. The ACME-IHI joint-venture green-ammonia project is expected to become operational in 2029.