Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser, a fully-owned subsidiary of Norwegian Nel, has been awarded a grant from the EU Innovation Fund of up to €135 million for the industrialization of its next-generation pressurized alkaline technology.
Nel said the company has been developing this technology for over five years, adding that, currently, it is in the prototype stage with promising results.
The initial build-out is planned for an annual capacity of 1-2 GW, utilizing existing space at the Herøya facility in Norway. As disclosed, the support will be phased with the company’s own investments for up to 4 GW of capacity for pressurized electrolyzer equipment in Norway.
According to Nel, a final investment decision (FID) to start building the capacity depends on achieving successful testing in the current prototype and planned pilot stage, as well as market acceptance of the new technology.
Nel’s President and CEO Håkon Volldal commented: “We continue to realize the full potential of our current technology at the same time as we develop future technologies to help our customers drive down the cost of green hydrogen. This grant will make it significantly easier for us to bring our new innovative pressurized alkaline technology to market.”
“Building on nearly 100 years of electrolyser innovation, we have developed this new, differentiated technology that will be a step-change in cost and performance for renewable hydrogen. Bringing a new technology to market always entails risk, and we are thankful for the support we have previously received from the Research Council of Norway and Innovation Norway. With this substantially larger grant from the EU Innovation Fund, we will be able to bring the innovation to market at an accelerated pace.”
To remind, in 2024, Nel pronounced itself as a company solely dedicated to developing and delivering electrolyzers to produce renewable hydrogen. At the same time, the company’s former fueling division was spun out and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange as Cavendish Hydrogen.