ITM wins firm order to supply 15MW of electrolysers to 12.5MW UK green hydrogen project
Source：hydrogeninsight
British electrolyser maker ITM Power has won a firm order to supply 15MW of electrolysers to a 12.5MW project in southeast England.
The capacity of the three 5MW Neptune V PEM electrolysers at the Northfleet Green Hydrogen Project in Kent will be constrained to 12.5MW due to the size of the original subsidy award from the UK government.
This means it was better deal for developer Octopus Energy Generation to buy 15MW of electrolysers from ITM than 12.5MW from a different manufacturer.
ITM took the unprecedented step of publicly revealing the cost of its 5MW Neptune V containerised green hydrogen plant (ie, electrolysers plus balance of plant) in May 2024 — £4.35m (€5m/$5.87m) — as the company was so confident it could beat its competitors on cost and value.
The Northfleet project — initially known as “Green Hydrogen 3” and developed by a joint venture between Octopus Energy and renewables developer RES called HYRO Energy — was awarded a Contract for Difference in 2023 under the UK government’s first Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR1), with an initial sales cap of about 18,000 tonnes (expressed in the contract as 771,000MWh (HHV)) over its 15-year subsidy period.
Each kilogram of green hydrogen produced at the project will receive a “strike price” amounting to $9.21 (£233.67/MWh at higher heating value), which will be made up of the market price, with a top-up subsidy from the government to ensure that the producer will receive the full strike price.
A final investment decision on the project has already been taken, meaning that the order is “a full contract award without conditionality”.
The green hydrogen produced at the facility will be supplied to Kimberly-Clark’s Northfleet manufacturing facility in Gravesend, Kent, which produces Andrex toilet paper.