Cummins scaling Belgium electrolyzer manufacturing capacity to 1GW through IPCEI support
09 September 2022
Cummins will expand PEM electrolyzer manufacturing capacity at its Oevel, Belgium, factory to 1 gigawatt with the support from the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hy2Tech program. IPCEI—recently approved by the European Commission, with funding granted by Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship Agency (VLAIO)—will help Cummins develop a new generation of PEM electrolyzer cell stacks to power large-scale hydrogen production systems.
The expansion in Belgium adds to Cummins’ already scaling global electrolyzer manufacturing footprint. The company has added capacity at its Mississauga, Canada, facility and is building two new electrolyzer factories in Spain and China, each starting at 500MW of manufacturing capacity and scalable to 1GW.
IPCEI Hy2Tech includes 41 projects from 35 companies in 15 European countries.
Promoting hydrogen development and deployment will boost jobs and growth throughout Europe while contributing to our green and resilience agenda. It enables the clean transition of energy-intensive industries and increases our independence from fossil fuels. With this IPCEI, we see EU hydrogen production moving ‘from lab to fab,’ and our industry turning technological mastery into commercial leadership. And of course, we are not only supporting hydrogen through funding. We have also made decisive progress on building partnerships through the Clean Hydrogen Alliance and are developing EU-wide rules for enabling the hydrogen market and creating dedicated infrastructure.
—Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the internal market
Whatever one thinks about the extensive use of hydrogen and its derivatives in decarbonisation, it is clear that it is happening on a truly game changing and relevant to the energy balance with fossil fuels etc scale.
I remember over the years those who seem to imagine that batteries are the one, the only, the universal solution claiming that that would never, ever happen.
Who knows, perhaps they may be mistaken in other aspects of their assessment?
Posted by: Davemart | 09 September 2022 at 12:53 AM
Here is a far more pessimistic take than that I have presented above on green hydrogen production expansion:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-09-green-hydrogen-short-term-scarcity-long-term.html
I can't spot the Nature Energy article as yet unfortunately.
Posted by: Davemart | 09 September 2022 at 01:18 AM
@Davemart
As I remember, people - here on GCC - have been highly skeptical of hydrogen usage in road transport, not in general.
I still think that battery electric is the way to go in the road transport sector. Hydrogen cost and efficiency is still really bad in comparisson with battery tech.
Green Hydrogen will very likely have a significant role in industry, (green steel) agriculture (fertilizer) and energy services (long term storage).
Great that we finally see significant electrolyser production capacity being built out.
Posted by: Soltesza | 09 September 2022 at 02:17 AM
@Soltesza
Some here have been more or less campaigning to have hydrogen banned as an element from the universe, on the grounds that we only need 91! ;-)
Reasonable scepticism is one thing, and should be applied to everything, including batteries, but much of the dialogue is way beyond that, and some sort of quasi religious declaration of faith in the one true way!
Personally I fancy batteries of maybe 16KWh for everyday running around, which is what they are good at, and hydrogen or methanol for longer runs, so avoiding the need for thumping great battery packs.
But there are a wide variety of possible solutions, depending on how things pan out, far from 'one solution to rule them all'
Posted by: Davemart | 09 September 2022 at 02:33 AM