Hydrogen market snapshot

Ways2H Inc. (a supplier of renewable hydrogen systems) and Valecom (a Caribbean ecological and energy solutions provider) have signed a letter of intent to transform up to 9,000 tonnes/year of Martinican waste into renewable hydrogen. Ways2H will initially process 24 tonnes/day of mixed commercial waste, including plastics and furniture, with an additional 8 tonnes/day once the infrastructure is fully operational after an 18 months construction period.

HDF Energy and its equity partners, the infrastructure fund Meridiam and the petroleum operator Sara (Rubis Group), have started the construction of Ceog Renewstable® Power Plant in French Guiana. Ceog is the world’s first multi-MW hydrogen power plant and the most extensive green hydrogen storage of intermittent electricity sources (128MWh). The Renewstable power plant, designed and developed by HDF, will supply 100% renewable, stable and dispatchable power to 10k households at a lower cost than the diesel power plant, but without emitting any greenhouse gas, fine particle, noise or fumes. With a total investment of US$ 200 million, the plant is an optimised combination of a solar park, a hydrogen long-term energy storage and a battery (short-term energy storage) to produce 24/7 baseload power. The French utility EDF has signed a 25 years Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) agreement; Equity provided by Meridiam and SARA as shareholders alongside HDF; Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract awarded to Siemens Energy; Hydrogen technologies supply is awarded to McPhy for the electrolysers and HDF for multi-megawatt hydrogen fuel cells.

McDermott has joined AquaVentus, a consortium of over 70 partners working on green hydrogen energy production in the North Sea. McDermott’s involvement will bring the consortium engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) experience in the onshore, offshore, subsea and storage markets, from concept to completion.

In the US, Arizona’s Renewable Energy Workforce has urged US Senator Kyrsten Sinema to support clean energy in upcoming votes on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in the US House of Representatives. The clean power industry is a job-creator and economic driver in Arizona, where renewable energy companies employ around 10k Arizona workers and have invested $9 billion in projects statewide. Senator Kyrsten Sinema said, “From boosting supply chains to expanding carbon-capture, hydrogen, and solar energy on mine lands, our bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act make historic investments in growing clean, renewable energy.”

Desert Mountain Energy Corp. agreed with Earl Resources to provide geologic, land, well planning, drilling and completion to develop bedded and domal salt cavern energy storage (including hydrogen) in Arizona and the southwest.

Hyzon Motors Inc. addressed a 28^th September 2021 report that targeted Hyson taking a short-selling position in the company’s shares. Hyzon said that the report conclusions are based on several factual inaccuracies and would respond further after carefully reviewing the report.

Baker Hughes has signed an MoU with Primus Line to collaborate on non-metallic pipe applications to rehabilitate and repurpose the existing pipeline networks for hydrogen and CO2 transportation. Pipeline rehabilitation is a process in which non-metallic composite pipe is pulled through existing pipeline infrastructure to reduce the need for full excavation, trenching, and permitting.

Snam and Irena have partnered to develop hydrogen through renewables to support the energy transition worldwide. Both partners will cooperate in studying and possibly implementing, alongside other partners, pilot projects on renewables generation, transport and distribution of green hydrogen with a view to the development of replicable business cases. Under the new cooperation, Snam and Irena will encourage public-private partnerships to expedite hydrogen demand on an industrial scale and will promote R&D initiatives to bring down costs and support technology developments.

GenCell Energy (an Israel-based manufacturer of fuel cell energy solutions) has unveiled a long-duration backup power solution based on ultra-reliable alkaline fuel cell technology. The GenCell Backup Operations eXtender (BOX)™ is explicitly designed to meet the challenging backup power requirements of telecom and critical communications operations. Fueled by hydrogen, the GenCell BOX resolves the key weaknesses of the most common other backup power solutions, such as the limited stored energy in batteries, the fumes, noise, CO2 emissions and lengthy startup time of diesel generators and the daylight limitations of solar PV energy systems.

Nel Hydrogen Fueling has received a purchase order from MaserFrakt AB (Swedish haulier and construction company) for one H2Station™ hydrogen fueling station for a fleet of heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles in Borlänge, Sweden. The hydrogen station will refuel vehicles in under fifteen minutes. The value of the contract has been kept confidential. The station will be operational at the end of 2022 and serves heavy-duty vehicles in the area.

In the US, PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp. has submitted a municipal siting application for its first site in Northern California for its Gen3 modular hydrogen production and dispensing unit. It plans to submit municipal siting applications for two additional sites in October 2021. The company would then have the green light to install PowerTap Gen3 units at three existing gas stations – two in Humboldt County and one in Monterey County. In 2008, Humboldt State University installed the first and, currently northernmost, hydrogen production and dispensing unit in California. Subject to approval and planning, the company expects the commission and installation of the PowerTap Gen3 Units in California in late 2022.

Hexagon Purus Asa, agreed to acquire 100% of Wystrach GmbH, a leading European systems and solutions provider for storage and transport of compressed gases. The combination brings unprecedented expertise and capacity together to create the vertically integrated industry leader in hydrogen storage solutions. The purchase price is € 43.3 million based on an enterprise value of € 50.0 million. A 35% of the purchase price will be paid in cash at closing, while 35% to be paid in the form of consideration shares in Hexagon Purus at closing at a price per share of NOK 33.4.  The remaining 30% of the purchase price represents a deferred payment and a contingent earn-out, both payable in cash. The transaction’s closing is expected in Q4 of 2021, subject to various conditions and regulatory approvals.

The Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Observatory (FCHO), in its recent reports, stated that new Fuel Cells Electric Vehicles (FCEV) registrations in Europe increased by 41% (2.774 vehicles in total) and the fuel cell shipments increased to 148.6 MW (+31% compared to 2020) representing 10% of total worldwide. While operation and construction activities in the hydrogen refuelling station market registered a small uptick in Europe, going up from 162 units in 2020 to 158 in 2019. The report further highlighted that global data on patents applications for mobile fuel cells outpaced those for stationary and portable fuel cells in recent years.

The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition appointed Ignacio Galán (Chairman and CEO, Iberdrola) as Chair alongside Nils Aldag as Vice-chair (CEO and Founder, Sunfire) for the next 18 months. The new appointees will spearhead the Coalition’s efforts to ensure that renewable hydrogen’s policies are in place to become competitive with conventional hydrogen this decade.