Axpo enters the hydrogen industry with a dedicated business unit

Axpo (a Swiss producer of renewable energy and energy trader) has set up two new business segments for batteries and hydrogen. It expects that battery storage and hydrogen will play an essential role in the renewable energy world.

Axpo is developing the necessary know-how and intends to realise leading-edge projects with partners. Green hydrogen is a key technology for energy transition and decarbonisation.

Christoph Sutter, Head of the Axpo Renewables Division, commented: “Battery storage and hydrogen technologies will become increasingly important to ensure that power from renewable sources is continuously available.” He added that it is only logical that we now want to specifically target and drive forward activities in these promising business fields.

The company has been expanding its renewable energies on an international level for years as a solar plant and wind farm developer. In Switzerland, it developed a 2 MW battery storage facility in Rapperswil-Jona in 2019, and at the end of 2020 announced the construction of a 6.25 MW storage system in Rathausen/Lucerne.

Outside Switzerland, it markets the flexibility options of a 30 MW battery storage system in Yllikkala, Finland. Axpo’s battery storage services will now also be developed explicitly on an international scale.

Early this month, Axpo announced that its Polish branch would provide green electricity to Johnson Matthey (JM), for a battery cathode materials plant in Konin, Poland. JM’s new factory in Konin is currently under construction and is set to commission in 2022 to supply automotive platforms for production in 2024. The plant will initially provide 10,000 tonnes/year of its advanced high nickel cathode material eLNO®, equivalent to some 100,000 electric vehicles.