ITM Power PLC (LON:ITM) has announced the opening of its 4th hydrogen refuelling station (‘HRS’) in the UK, and the first partnering with petrochemical giant Shell. This following the announcement yesterday that Shell, partnering with Toyota, will roll-out 7 further HRSs across California. This UK HRS is located at Shell’s Cobham services forecourt on the M25, the busiest motorway refuelling site in the UK. This is the first of 3 scheduled HRS openings in the UK by ITM with Shell. A timely partnership for ITM, considering yesterday’s announcement, Shell’s plans to open 400 HRSs across Europe and the US with joint venture (‘JV’) partners by 2023, and Shell’s founding membership of ‘The Hydrogen Council’ at Davos 2017; a collective of leading OEMs, energy companies and technology partners set-up to increase investment in, and commercialisation of, hydrogen transportation. ITM is embedding its state-of-the-art electrolysis platform in global markets with blue chip partners at a critical stage of accelerating technology adoption and market expansion.
* FY17 and FY18 forecasts reflect a growing pipeline, as ITM executes commercialisation of its world-class platform. ITM’s first HRS with Shell is an excellent commercial development in the hydrogen fuelling sector, which is a key target market for ITM. We leave FY17 and FY18 total income forecasts of £10.7m and £15.1m respectively unchanged. This constitutes YoY top-line growth of 30% for 2016/2017 and 41% for 2017/2018. ITM has demonstrable traction and growth in global mass markets at an early stage of their evolution.
* Cobham HRS further evinces Shell’s focus on hydrogen fuelling following yesterday’s announcement for 7 HRSs in California with Toyota. In the RNS, Shell talks of plans to open 400 HRSs with its JV partners by 2023, adding to existing HRSs in Germany and California. Yesterday this was backed up by the announcement of a 7 HRS roll-out in California partnering with Toyota. Shell was also a founding member of ‘The Hydrogen Council’ at Davos 2017, a powerful collective to accelerate hydrogen transport commercialisation. Toyota and Honda comment on how the HRS opening facilitates roll-out of their hydrogen production cars: the Mirai and the Clarity respectively. Global blue-chips on both the fuelling and vehicle side of the coin are active, and investing materially, in hydrogen transport. ITM’s world-class platform is excellently positioned to play a key role in this shift in global transportation trends.
* Recent £5.7m fund raise provides capital to deliver growing order book. In late January ITM Power PLC announced a successful £5.7m equity fund raise, which was ratified at general meeting on February 16th, with share trading on the 17th. The fund raise ensures ITM has sufficient working and growth capital to deliver its current and near-term pipeline of orders. The capital also adds balance sheet strength ahead of a number of anticipated tenders for new business.
Dr. Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM Power Plc, said: “ITM Power is pleased to partner with Shell to bring their first forecourt hydrogen refuelling site to life. Electrolytic hydrogen is the cleanest, and lowest cost, renewable fuel available for fuel cell electric vehicles. We look forward to working with Shell to introduce additional hydrogen stations on their forecourts in the UK in the near future.”
Sinead Lynch, Shell’s UK Country Chair, commented: “We believe the journey to a low-carbon economy requires a coordinated and collaborative approach among organisations in the transport sector, including providers of energy and transport vehicles, users of transport vehicles, local authorities as well as government. The Cobham retail site is a small but significant first step toward developing infrastructure needed for increased usage of hydrogen vehicles.”
FCH JU Executive Director, Bart Biebuyck, commenting on the opening: “While FCH JU project HyFIVE has already delivered significant results and contributed to addressing major EU challenges, we are very pleased to see an important industry player joining the venture. The opening of Shell’s first station in the UK occurs one month after the Hydrogen Council announcement at Davos, and reinforces the industrial commitment towards decarbonisation.”
Paul Van der Burgh, Toyota (GB) President and Managing Director, said: “The opening of Shell’s first forecourt hydrogen refuelling station at Cobham, the seventh hydrogen station in the country, is the result of collaboration, cooperation and determination from government and industry leaders to bring the benefits of sustainable ultra-low emission transport to the UK. At Toyota, we are committed to playing a leading role in environmental and technological advances in the automotive industry, and this new station will help us to introduce more customers to the benefits of our fuel cell vehicles, including our Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car. We would like to congratulate the team involved on this significant new project.”
Thomas Brachmann, automobile powertrain and material research expert at Honda R&D Europe (Deutschland) GmbH, said: “The opening of the hydrogen refuelling station at Shell Cobham is a major milestone for the HyFIVE project and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in the UK. To have a hydrogen refuelling station at a major service station by one of the busiest motorways in Europe will provide further convenience to drivers of hydrogen fuel cell cars, such as the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell.”
Julia Thomas, Managing Director of Greentomatocars, says: “We welcome this new hydrogen fuelling station which will be extremely useful for our two Mirai hydrogen fuel cell private hire cars. The addition of a hydrogen fuelling station south of London complements those already in operation to the east and west of London, boosting the capital’s hydrogen infrastructure. This should encourage more companies to follow the lead in adopting zero emission hydrogen vehicles which are good for people and for the environment.”
Nick Power, Market Development Manager, Clean Fuels, BOC, said: “The Linde Group and its UK subsidiary, BOC, are proud to supply the compression and dispensing system for the UK’s first hydrogen refuelling station on a Shell forecourt. Over the past several decades, Linde has played a pioneering role in the development of innovative hydrogen technologies. Our advanced ionic compressor employed at Shell’s HyFIVE station at Cobham Services will deliver significant benefits in terms of greater energy efficiency, reduced noise pollution and less maintenance.”
