UK firm in €1.5m deal to extend hydrogen infrastructure in France
British energy storage and clean fuel company, ITM Power, announced on June 29 that it has sold an integrated hydrogen refuelling station with on-site generation to Hydrogene de France. The deal is worth €1.5m and the station will be commissioned in mid-2017 in a push to grow hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in France.

ITM announced the sale of an integrated hydrogen refueling station (HRS) with on-site generation to Hydrogène de France (HDF), for deployment in France. The contract is worth €1.5 million (US$1.7 million) to ITM Power before follow-on contracts such as maintenance agreements.

The electrolyzer HRS selection was based on HDF’s usual competitive tender process. The station is targeted to serve both local captive fleets of Fuel Cell Range Extender-Electric Vehicle vans with a 350 bar refueling technology and Fuel Cell electric Vehicle with 700 bar refueling technology.

HDF acts as an operator of hydrogen energy to exploit the potential of hydrogen as a fuel and deploys hydrogen refueling assets in France to prepare for future large scale deployments of fuel cell vehicles and buses. This is part of the H2 Mobilité France consortium strategy to create and then interlink regional HRS clusters across France.

HDF will be responsible for the purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of the station, as well as the preparation of the HRS site.

The HRS will be commissioned mid-2017. The electrolyzer HRS will be partly funded by the European Union as part of the H2ME2, EU FCH JU-funded project. As part of this project, HDF will be able to test the operation of the electrolyzer in a live market to provide grid balancing services.