Clean fuel and energy storage business, ITM Power, says manufacturing of electrolysers has started at its first “Gigafactory” at Bessemer Park in Sheffield.
The fit out of the 1GW (1,000MW) per annum facility has now reached practical completion, having suffered only a minor delay due to the pandemic.
ITM Power’s completed fit out includes an expansion of the existing offices, enlargement of the stack manufacturing and production areas and a dedicated space for factory acceptance testing of products.
The Gigafactory houses a 24-hour remote and technical monitoring centre which will support ITM Power’s after-sales service proposition, along with a Marketing centre, Technology centre and component stores.
Energy storage and clean fuel firm, ITM Power, is part of a project to explore the potential to harness wind for offshore green hydrogen production. The listed Sheffield-based company is in a consortium which has just received a 5m euro (£4.5m) European Union award.
This is the latest announcement from the ITM Power which recently launched a gigafactory at Bessemer Park in Sheffield. Its value has more than doubled in value since October and is six times higher than 12 months ago.
Funding for the new OYSTER Project has come from The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH2-JU) to demonstrate and investigate a combined wind turbine and electrolyser system designed for operation in marine environments.
Coal and gas have routinely accounted for 60% of electricity generation in Britain during the first half of January, sparking concerns around the nation’s ability to maintain energy security in a low-carbon manner during winter weather conditions.
The National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) publishes data on the generation mix on Twitter every day. Combined percentages for coal and gas were the highest in the week beginning 4 January than they have been in almost a year; on Friday (8 January), coal represented 7% of generation and gas represented 52.5%.
The peak in coal use is not likely to persist throughout 2021. It happened, the ESO has said, because of poor weather conditions for renewable generation, and because of increased electricity demands from homes. This happens every winter.