Milestone as ITM Power wins first US order

Chief executive Dr Graham Cooley said the Aim-listed firm now has the opportunity to further develop its presence and sales in energy storage and clean fuel products to California and the wider United States as a plant manufacturer and supplier.

ITM Power turns renewable wind and solar power into hydrogen gas using electrolyser technology, which creates on-demand clean fuel for cars, cooking, heating and welding.

The business said that its new US company, ITM Power Inc, will supply an electrolyser-based unit to Hydrogen Frontier that will be used to dispense hydrogen at Hyundai’s hydrogen energy and fuelling station in Chino. Motor company Hyundai will use the hydrogen to refuel its fuel cell electric vehicles.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has awarded hydrogen infrastructure development company Hydrogen Frontier a $3m grant to build the refuelling station at the Hyundai America Technical Center testing facility.

California has a planned schedule of funding and investing in more stations using similar award schemes.

Dr Cooley said: “We are delighted to be deploying our first electrolyser unit in California under ITMPower Inc. 

“ITM Power has been well known in California since our IPO on the London Stock Exchange and our presence at many of the hydrogen and fuel cell exhibitions held there over the years.”

A consortium of companies are involved in the refuelling station project including Hydrogen Frontier, ITM Power, Powertech Labs in Canada and Hyundai.

Explaining how ITM Power’s technology works, Dr Cooley said: “What an electrolyser does is it takes in water and renewable power, you pass a current through the water and it splits it into hydrogen and oxygen and you use the hydrogen as the fuel.”

As part of the company’s plans to expand its activities on a global basis, ITM Power will establish a permanent staff in the US for ITM Power Inc. 

ITM Power’s business development manager, Stephen Jones, has been appointed managing director of ITMPower Inc and will be working alongside Geoff Budd, ITM Power’s existing representative in the United States and Canada to grow the company’s North American activities. 

Dr Cooley said: “We basically are interested in two markets. One is pure energy storage, where we use renewable power to make hydrogen and we put that straight into the gas grid, and the most rapidly developing market for that type of energy storage is Germany.

“And then we also make electrolysers that go into refuelling stations and the most rapidly developing market for that is the US and more specifically, California. So it’s a deal for us that is very important because it is in the largest and fastest-growing market for refuelling.”

Dr Cooley said: “The company is developing very rapidly now. From my point of view our representative in the US now, rather than talking about ITM’s products, can drive potential customers in a hydrogen vehicle to see one of our refuelling stations, which is a much more powerful proposition for a customer.”

ITM Power Inc has also appointed two key advisers, Bob Rose and Dr Alan Lloyd. 

Mr Rose has been involved in the fuel cell industry for more than 20 years, and founded the US Fuel Cell Trade Association, now part of the US Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association. Previously, he served in senior communications and policy positions in the US government, and as an adviser to non-profit organisations, the private sector and state and regional organisations in California and elsewhere.

Mr Rose has been a member of the US Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technical Advisory Committee since 2007.

He has recently been appointed to a committee advising the US Secretary of Commerce on renewable energy export issues. 

Dr Lloyd’s work focuses on viable future of advanced transportation technology including electric drive and renewable fuels with attention to urban air quality issues and global climate change.

He is president of The International Council on Clean Transport (ICCT) and a member of the US Secretary of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technical Advisory Committee.

ITM Power now employs 70 people and has an order book of about £1.7m, said Dr Cooley.

“We have taken this year, since our results, an additional £3m in grant funding and we’ve got another £3m subject to contract and they are all technology projects with leading blue chip companies.”

£2m raised through placing

ITM Power recently raised £2m through a share placing to underpin its balance sheet. The firm announced a significant fall in revenues in the year to April 30, down from £480,000 to £87,000, following delays in commissioning.

The pre-tax loss for the year fell five per cent to £6.2m.

Chairman Prof Roger Putnam said, at first glance, revenues of £87,000 appear disappointing. “Two material sales, totalling £205,000, which we had expected to conclude before the period end, actually occurred in the first quarter of the current financial year.

“Adding back these timing differences, revenues appear healthier, although still lower than last year’s £480,000, which included a large sale to the University of Nottingham for some £275,000.”

The group pointed to a £900,000 order book and what it called a strong and growing quotation pipeline.