Water, power and port screening of green hydrogen sites before money is spent
TL;DR Saltplain sells ranked screening reports for green hydrogen sites in India. Each report scores candidate land on renewable output, cooling and process water, grid access and distance to a port or buyer. Developers, state agencies and lenders pay per study, because a bad site locks in a high hydrogen cost for 25 years.
India wants at least 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, backed by about 125 GW of new renewable capacity[1]. The mission names land, water, transmission and ports as the inputs that decide whether a project works, and it expects projects to cluster near major ports[1].
The catch is that these inputs pull in different directions. The sunniest land in Rajasthan and Gujarat is often the most water-stressed, and a 2026 study found that cooling, not the electrolysis itself, can eat up most of a plant's water in hot regions[2].
If a developer picks a site on solar output alone then it may later find it needs desalination or dry cooling. Today consultants do early screening in spreadsheets, one project at a time.
Saltplain is a screening service with a map at its core. A client gives a region, a target output and a buyer location, and Saltplain returns a ranked shortlist of 5–15 sites with the reasons behind each score.
Here's what goes into a score - solar and wind resource, cooling and process water with a seasonal stress check, distance to a substation and its spare capacity, land type, and the trip to a port or anchor buyer. A machine-learning layer fills gaps in public data and flags sites where scores are uncertain, so the client knows what to verify on the ground.
The seed pitched an AI platform for hydrogen planning. I've reframed it as a report business, because India has a few dozen serious hydrogen developers and that's too few buyers for self-serve software. Reports sell now. The map can become a subscription once states and lenders ask for repeat runs.
Project developers bidding under the mission's incentive scheme pay per study, at the pre-feasibility stage. State nodal agencies planning hubs are a second buyer, paying for region-wide studies. Lenders and their technical advisers want an independent check on a sponsor's site choice. What do these studies cost? Nobody publishes a price, and consultancies quote case by case.
The mission's SIGHT incentive programme carries ₹17,490 Cr up to 2029-30, and ₹400 Cr is set aside for hubs and related projects, with at least two hubs planned early[3]. India's first discovered green hydrogen price, ₹397/kg in June 2025, gives developers a number to beat[4]. And site choice moves that number a lot.
There is no public figure for what Indian developers spend on hydrogen site screening. The firm signals are the budgets above: ₹19,744 Cr of total mission outlay[3] and an expected ₹8 lakh crore of investment by 2030[1]. Each project typically screens several sites before one is chosen. Treat the mission figures as adjacent, because your real market is the number of studies commissioned a year.
The IEA publishes a free project database, updated in June 2026, which lists projects but does not screen sites[5]. Fraunhofer IEE runs a global power-to-X atlas[6]. Researchers have built siting models for hydrogen stations, such as a 2025 UAE highway study[7]. In India, engineering consultancies do one-off studies.
The gap is a fast, repeatable, India-specific screen that puts water right next to power.
| Difficulty | Moderate (36/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹55–95 L |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The code is easy. The hard part is data quality, since groundwater, substation capacity and land records are patchy and sometimes out of date. Clients will judge you on whether your first three studies hold up when their engineers visit the site and test the water and grid claims.
No sector licence is needed to sell screening studies. Mission rules matter only as context for your clients' bids[3].
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI decide that a site has enough water or grid capacity. That needs field tests and the utility's confirmation before anyone commits money.
Want to work out the AI layer for Saltplain? Talk to Yash →
I like this one for a founder from GIS or renewable project development who already knows developers. If you want to sell software without doing the analysis then it's a poor fit. First, prove that three developers will pay for a study and that your shortlist matches what their own engineers find on site.
Plan for roughly ₹55–95 L, mostly on GIS analysts, data and the first few studies.
No sector licence. Follow Survey of India guidelines before publishing maps and respect each data set's licence.
Yes, water and power trade-offs exist in every sunny region. Check local map-data rules and who owns the public data you rely on.
The free Saltplain validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the data and map-use checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for developers and state agencies, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Saltplain or something close to it? The make-or-break work is earning trust with the first three developers before their engineers check your sites, and I'm happy to help you think that through. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.