Don't blame us | Electrolyser producers being held back by lack of green hydrogen FIDs
We won’t agree any further GW capacity until ‘concrete is being poured’ on green H2 projects, say CEOs of manufacturers Nel and ITM
Electrolyser production capability is ramped up and ready to go, with more factories possible within timeframes of 18 months - but green hydrogen developers must commit hard cash to their projects if they want more GWs of capacity, electrolyser manufacturers have warned.
“The industry is ready to scale up, but there’s only so much that Graham and I can do to prepare for something that is coming,” said Løkke. “There are still a lot of investment decisions that need to be made.”
“The money isn’t starting to flow,” agreed Cooley, noting that an 18-month lead time would be “reasonable” for a new factory.
“We’re ready to go and we just need the EU to put those incentives in place and the larger projects to get to financial close,” he explained.
Hydrogen developers have been wracked with anxiety over the availability of electrolysers to support their projects, with many pointing the finger at manufacturers for not expanding fast enough to support final investment decisions (FID).
The situation has been exacerbated by EU’s decision to raise its green hydrogen target to 200GW by 2030 under the RePowerEU programme – without yet unlocking funding.
But the visibly frustrated Løkke railed against the “endless amount of announcements, and ambitions and frame agreements and targets” which he implied are no substitute for firm investment in projects.
“We cannot continue to invest ahead of the curve, we need to have some visibility as well,” he warned. “We need to see concrete being poured and steel being welded.”
“We cannot be more ready,” he added. “Now it is up to the European Commission and the downstream players, the users of molecules to start making investment decisions, and start building. And then we will respond by adding even more capacity.”
But Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of ACWA Power which has just placed an order for 2.2GW of electrolysers for the Neom project in Saudi Arabia, called for calm.
“[Electrolyser manufacture] is not a constraint at all,” he told the FT audience. “The issue is there are a lot of people wondering whether the chicken or the egg is going to come first. It needs somebody stepping up and having the courage and conviction to say I’m going to build it and they will come.”
He added: “Right now we are all frozen [like] rabbits in headlights waiting to see who blinks first. There is no impediment today. The market is there. We just need to get on with it.”
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