OVERVIEW - Plug and Nucera end Q2 with opportunities to boast about

The second quarter of 2023 can be described as eventful for the usual suspects in the electrolyser supply segment such as Plug Power and Thyssenkrupp Nucera, which both disclosed some significant green hydrogen opportunities. Topsoe too has a big project on the horizon, but painted in pink.

The following overview collects widely-reported deals and contracts for electrolyser supply that were officially announced by the better-known sector players in April-June 2023. They are presented below in alphabetical order.

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This time around, the disclosures are split more evenly between the four main electrolysis technologies – Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), alkaline, solid oxide (SOEC) and Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM).

BLOOM ENERGY/SIEMENS ENERGY

We are starting this quarterly overview with a project that will utilise both SOEC and PEM electrolysers from two different suppliers, namely Bloom Energy Corp and Siemens Energy AG. As unveiled by a company representative in June, Bloom Energy will supply SOEC equipment for Project Nujio'qonik in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. At the project site, World Energy GH2 is developing Canada’s first commercial-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production facility, with plans to install 1.5 GW of electrolysers powered by more than 3 GW of wind capacity. This is estimated to be enough to produce some 250,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

While Siemens Energy has not yet announced its involvement in the project, the Bloom Energy representative said that the first phase of the project calls for the delivery of a total of 600 MW of electrolysers by the two suppliers. However, the final split of SOEC versus PEM technology will be concluded after pre-FEED (Front End Engineering Design) and FEED.

The developer of the projects hopes to start green hydrogen production in 2025.

ENAPTER

One of the few well-known developers of the AEM electrolysis technology, Enapter AG, got an order in June for a 1-MW AEM-Multicore electrolyser from Intelligent Energy Ltd. The UK-based customer intends to use the system to produce hydrogen for the testing of its zero-emission fuel cell products up to 300 kW. Delivery is planned for 2024.

The announcement came a month after Enapter inaugurated the first AEM Multicore in Saerbeck, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. That is where the company’s campus is located and where pre-series Multicore production is taking place, with the expectation that pre-series maturity will be achieved in 2024.

Enapter noted it is already experiencing very good demand for the product, having received orders from Europe, Asia and North America.

“The demand for our products is enormous: We are already the world’s largest producer of electrolysers in terms of unit numbers,” CEO Sebastian-Justus Schmidt stated at the time.

JOHN COCKERILL

While it did not disclose a specific order, Belgium’s John Cockerill unveiled in mid-June a partnership with steel major ArcelorMittal to build the world’s first industrial-scale, low-temperature iron electrolysis plant. The facility will utilise the Volteron carbon-free cold direct electrolysis process to extract iron from iron ore using electricity. In its first phase, the project will have the capacity to produce between 40,000 and 80,000 tonnes of iron plates a year.

During the quarter, the company also announced the establishment of a green hydrogen joint venture with Technip Energies called Rely to provide end-to-end solutions for the execution of projects. The new firm, majority owned by Technip Energies, will source alkaline electrolysers from John Cockerill Hydrogen under a capacity reservation and supply contract of an unspecified volume. The JV’s goal is to surpass EUR 1 billion in revenues by the end of the decade.

LONGI HYDROGEN ENERGY

LONGi Hydrogen Energy, a unit of LONGi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd, unveiled a single order in April-June 2023, but it is a significant one. The company will participate in the roughly USD-1-billion Da'an green synthetic ammonia project at the Clean Energy Chemical Industry Park in the west of Jilin, northeastern China. It will supply 15 sets of electrolysers, each with capacities of 1,000 normal cubic metres per hour (Nm³/h).

The overall scheme involves the construction of 800 MW of wind and solar, a new 220-kV booster station, 40 MW/80 MWh of energy storage, as well as 46,000 Nm³/h of hybrid hydrogen production and 60,000Nm³ of hydrogen storage plus 180,000 tonnes of synthetic ammonia plant.

MCPHY ENERGY

In terms of new orders, French hydrogen equipment company McPhy Energy SA’s second quarter was definitely more productive than the first three months of the year. In April, the company announced it will supply two 1-MW McLyzer electrolysers for a state-backed project in Brandenburg, Germany, that is being developed by a local unit of ArcelorMittal. In addition to delivering the electrolysers, McPhy will also service the equipment under a five-year contract. The purpose of the project in Eisenhuettenstadt is to produce hydrogen for direct use in steel production.

Unfortunately, later that month McPhy actually got a notice of suspension in relation to an existing contract with Siemens Energy. It announced that the German company had exercised a contractual clause allowing the suspension of the execution of its order for an Augmented McLyzer alkaline electrolyser of 16 MW. The electrolysis plant was supposed to be installed as part of a solar-powered green hydrogen project in Western French Guiana.

“This suspension is beyond McPhy's control and is not linked to the execution of the contract by McPhy,” a press statement said, adding that the company was ready to take over the execution of the project as soon as needed. However, for the time being, it assumed a negative impact on its first-half revenue of EUR 2 million. McPhy pointed out, though, that the 60% project revenue it had recorded as of end-2022 was not affected by the suspension.

In May, McPhy signed a contract for the delivery, assembly and commissioning in Austria of one McLyzer 800-30 with a capacity of 4 MW. The equipment will be installed for molybdenum and tungsten processing company Plansee Group at its manufacturing site in Reutte. The green hydrogen produced there will be used for the production high-performance metals for semiconductor, electronics, medical and other high-tech applications. The order comes with a long-term maintenance contract. The start of green hydrogen production at the site is expected by the end of next year.

OHMIUM

US-based PEM specialist Ohmium International, which closed a USD-250-million Series C growth equity financing in April, got picked by the renewable energy arm of power utility NTPC Ltd to supply up to 400 MW of PEM electrolysers for various projects in ammonia, transportation and power, among other applications. According to the announcement, NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd will install 5 GW of renewables for these projects. The deal is valid through May 2025.

Earlier in the quarter, Ohmium also signed an agreement with Spanish firm Efficiency for LNG Applications (E4Efficiency) to support its decarbonisation project in Huelva, southern Spain. Under that deal, it will deploy electrolysers capable of producing up to 52 tonnes of green hydrogen per year to replace the methane used in the gas flare pilot flame of the Huelva Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification terminal.

PLUG POWER

In the first quarter of 2023, sector major Plug Power Inc unveiled only one deal but it was a respectable one that could lead to deliveries in the hundreds of megawatts range over the coming years. In contrast, the company announced more than one contract in April-June but none of them were of the same magnitude. That is, of course, if we do not count in-house opportunities.

Plug agreed on supplies of 5-MW electrolysers to each of Swedish glass packaging producer Ardagh Glass Limmared AB, a new unit of aluminum giant Norsk Hydro ASA, and APEX Group. Actually, the latter has ordered not one but two 5-MW electrolyser modules for installation in Bremen, Germany, at a power plant run by public utility company SWB.

The early summer also brought an agreement with Blue EnerFreeze, the energy subsidiary of cold logistics specialist STEF, that will lead to the delivery of a complete green hydrogen ecosystem across two cold/freezer storage sites in France and Spain. The deal envisages the potential expansion further into the customer’s network, which surpasses 100 distribution centres in Europe. Plug did not mention what size electrolysers would be needed for such systems.

At the same time, Avina Clean Hydrogen Inc ordered 5 MW of containerised PEM electrolysers for a green hydrogen plant that will serve the commercial mobility sector in southern California, supporting heavy-duty trucks in particular. This deal sets the foundation for a long-term partnership between the two companies as Plug also gets a right of first refusal to equip Avina’s next hydrogen project, according to the announcement.

Plug’s largest opportunity unveiled last quarter is in Finland. There, the company will need to deliver PEM electrolysers and liquefaction technology for three of its own major green hydrogen projects representing 2.2 GW of electrolysis capacity. Subject to taking the final investment decision by 2025/26, these projects could be completed by the end of 2030. They are expected to “support the production of ammonia and green direct reduced iron (DRI), reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and materially support the decarbonisation of Europe.”

The company ended the quarter by disclosing its participation in an EU-backed consortium that will build an offshore green hydrogen production plant in the North Sea, off the port of Ostend, Belgium. Plug will design and deliver a 10-MW PEM electrolyser for this project. The production unit and export and distribution infrastructure are planned to come online in mid-2026.

THYSSENKRUPP NUCERA

A noteworthy second-quarter development for Thyssenkrupp Nucera AG & Co KGaA is that it adopted a new business model allowing the reservation of production capacity. The hydrogen solutions joint venture of German industrial group Thyssenkrupp AG and Italy's Industrie De Nora SpA unveiled not one but two such deals in just a month.

First, Stockholm-based industrial start-up H2 Green Steel reserved more than 700 MW of alkaline electrolysers for its maiden green steel project in Boden, Sweden. This giga-scale electrolysis plant will be using hydro and wind power to produce hydrogen for on-site consumption. The steel plant itself is expected to commence operations at end-2025.

Commenting on the first capacity reservation deal, Werner Ponikwar, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Nucera, stated that it “indicates a change in market dynamics.”

The second such agreement is with an unnamed customer and concerns a project in North America. As part of it, Nucera will supply standardised 20-MW electrolysis modules with a combined capacity in “the high multi-hundred-megawatt range.”

Meanwhile, the company will also be installing the latest generation e-BiTAC v7 electrolysers under a deal with OxyChem to support the conversion of a plant in Texas from the diaphragm to membrane chlor-alkali technology.

As of the second half of June, Nucera had already contracted over 3 GW of electrolyser capacity, more than two thirds of which come from its Saudi project with Air Products.

TOPSOE

The last company to be covered is Denmark’s Topsoe A/S, which got involved in a pink ammonia project in Indonesia alongside Copenhagen Atomics, Alfa Laval, Aalborg CSP, Pupuk Kaltim and Pertamina New & Renewable Energy. This group of partners will investigate the operational and regulatory conditions for building an ammonia production plant in Bontang, utilising molten salt fourth-generation nuclear as feedstock.

Topsoe’s role in this partnership, should the project proceed to implementation, is to deliver a whole gigawatt of SOEC electrolysers along with its ammonia synthesis technology. The plan is to set up 25 small modular reactors (SMRs), the company noted.