Green hydrogen producer Lhyfe pivots to co-developing 1GW of projects as it seeks to quadruple revenue this year

French green hydrogen producer Lhyfe has outlined in its 2023 results a plan to co-develop large-scale projects on behalf of investors, with the ambition of closing a partnership for 1GW of projects by the end of this year.

This strategy would see one or more companies owning up to 100% of the project, with Lhyfe drawing in revenue from fees charged for development and ongoing asset management once the projects are built.

Meanwhile, the French firm would continue to develop its own projects in tandem, with 20% of its targeted 3GW portfolio in 2030 expected to be fully owned.

Lhyfe is already jointly developing the Åland Energy Island project in Finland, which aims to build gigawatt-scale offshore wind for electrolysis, with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Flexens.

Lhyfe expects that its “hydrogen-as-a-service” model will not only quadruple revenue from the €1.3m ($1.4m) it reported for 2023 — already double the previous year’s result — but enable the company to break even earlier than planned.

While the firm had previously anticipated breaking even in 2026 with a revenue of €200m, it now projects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of €10m off €100m in revenue for that year. Similarly, Lhyfe targets Ebitda margins of more than 30% in 2030.

However, in its results for the past year, the French company reported a negative Ebitda of €28.1m for 2023, with a consolidated net loss of €33.6m — €7.8m deeper in the red than in 2022.

Despite this, Lhyfe is confident that its balance sheet is strong enough to support its short-term growth, with €114.3m in available cash.

In addition to collecting up to €238m in EU and Spanish government grants, the developer closed a €28m green syndicated loan with its existing banking partners at the end of last year.