HydrogenPro to supply US green hydrogen project with electrolysers made in China
The Norwegian manufacturer has also increased capacity at its Tianjin plant to 500MW
Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer HydrogenPro has confirmed that the 40 electrolysers ordered by Mitsubishi Power Americas for the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in the US state of Utah will be manufactured at its plant in Tianjin, China.
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The company, which makes high-pressure alkaline electrolysers, has also increased manufacturing capacity at the Chinese facility from 300MW to 500MW.
This is believed to be the first time that a Western manufacturer will build electrolysers in China, where production costs are lower, and ship them to a project in the West.
The only other Western electrolyser maker with a major Chinese factory up and running is Belgium’s John Cockerill, and that plant produces machines targeted at China and India, with different specifications to those sought in the West.
HydrogenPro had previously announced plans to invest around $30-50m towards constructing a 500MW facitory in Texas to serve increasing demand from US project developers in the wake of the production tax credit introduced by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Meanwhile, HydrogenPro said in its last quarterly report that it aimed to complete manufacturing the 220MW of electrolyser capacity for the ACES project by the end of this year.
The ACES hub aims to generate 100 tonnes per day of green hydrogen using renewable electricity generated during off-peak hours. It will also store the gas in two salt caverns capable of stockpiling around 11,000 tonnes, equivalent to more than 300GWh of dispatchable energy, from start-up.
The project’s developers have been vague on exactly when the electrolysers will be brought on line.
While the project has been described as a “hub”, it is not clear whether the companies behind ACES, Mitsubishi and salt cavern storage developer Magnum Energy, are seeking funding via the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) $7bn Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs programme.
ACES had already secured a $504.4m loan from the DOE in June 2022.
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