EXCLUSIVE | 'Significant acceleration' | More than 3GW of hydrogen electrolysers have now been delivered globally

Electrolyser deliveries have already surpassed 3GW worldwide, according to Indian consultancy VNZ Insights, “signalling a significant acceleration in the adoption of this key technology”.

And OEMs are now sitting on 30GW of supply agreements — although only 37% of this relates to deals that are solid enough to be counted as “orders”.

VNZ, which has published an electrolyser “report card” for the first half of 2024 based on OEM order books and deliveries to the end of June 2024, found that Chinese projects account for a massive 46% of global delivered capacity, with Sinopec’s 260MW Kuqa installation in Xinjiang remaining the world’s biggest operational green hydrogen plant.

But Jilin Electric Power’s Da’an Wind Solar Green Hydrogen Plant in northeast China, and Mitsubishi and Chevron’s ACES Delta hydrogen hub project in the US state of Utah are not far behind, with delivered capacity of 245MW and 220MW, respectively.

In fact, the US and Europe accounts for around 18% each of total electrolyser deliveries at of H1 2024, although the European market is comprised of smaller projects, all of which fall below 100MW, VNZ said.

The Middle East holds a 14% share, according to VNZ’s data, largely driven by the 400MW of electrolysers already delivered for the 2.2GW Neom project.

Overall, the market is shifting towards larger installations, VNZ found, with projects exceeding 200MW now making up 37% of the market, representing a “significant shift from the previously dominant 5-50MW segment”.

Alkaline technology also dominates the market, especially for larger projects, accounting for 77% of all deliveries. In fact, Holland Hydrogen 1, Stegra’s green steel plant and the Neom green hydrogen project have all opted for alkaline models made by Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Nucera.

However, proton exchange membrane technology (PEM) is gaining ground, holding a 22% share that is growing each year, especially in Europe. PEM technology is also making inroads into larger projects, with VNZ observing an increasing in deliveries above 50MW.

But solid oxide or anion exchange membrane (AEM) technologies have still not grabbed a significant market share, holding 1% between them.

Order book

Overall, OEMs have a “robust” pipeline of 30GW in supply agreements, VNZ said, but at least 19GW of this relates to tentative deals such as letters of intent or memoranda of understanding.

The remaining 11.GW of “firm and non-firm” orders — 80% of which have been made with the top 10 OEMs — is made up mostly of those from projects larger than 50MW.

The German company remains on top in the H1 2024 report card, with 3.1GW in orders, two thirds of which can be attributed to its 2.2GW order from Neom (modules have been delivered while cells are currently being assembled onsite).

Two Chinese companies, Peric and Longi, were listed among the top ten electrolyser makers by VNZ in June, but Longi was not listed among the leading Chinese players in H1 2024.

The top Chinese manufacturers in the first half of this year were Envision, which logged a 500MW order for its under-construction Chifeng green hydrogen plant, while Peric took 290MW in orders and Sungrow 170MW.