OVERVIEW - John Cockerill, Plug stand out among electrolyser suppliers in Q4

For the electrolyser supply segment of the green hydrogen industry, the fourth quarter of 2024 was characterised by a significant order of 640 MW in India, a binding framework for 3 GW in Australia, and a number of smaller but respectable deals.

However, firm orders were anything but plenty and that reflects the lack of final investment decisions (FIDs) in the industry. What sector players count on now is that the release of the final rules for the section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit in the US changes things for the better.

Still, the past three-month period was actually not uneventful for electrolyser suppliers as some of them like HydrogenPro and Hystar received grants, Metacon raised close to USD 10 million via a rights issue, while others like Enapter and FuelCell Energy formed new partnerships. Enapter, in particular, also saw its joint venture with Wolong Group start series production of a megawatt-class AEM electrolyser in China. At the same time, Accelera by Cummins opened a new 500-MW electrolyser factory in the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha.

In addition to its EUR-16.5-million grant from the EU Innovation Fund, HydrogenPro raised NOK 70 million in new equity through a private placement of new shares and agreed an exclusive partnership with J.H.K. for the development of green hydrogen projects in Germany, Austria and the Benelux countries in the range of 5 MW to 50 MW.

Similar to HydrogenPro and Hystar, Thyssenkrupp Nucera secured funding from the EU for the purpose of building a 300-MW high-temperature SOEC electrolysis plant in Germany but also joined forces with Hydrogen Oman to identify potential for localisation and explore development opportunities in Oman as part of an intended collaboration.

Below you will find an overview of the most notable publicly-announced electrolyser orders for the fourth quarter 2024. The suppliers are listed in alphabetical order.

ELECTRIC HYDROGEN

US-based company Electric Hydrogen, with operations in California and Massachusetts, was chosen by German energy major Uniper to design a 200-MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser for a project on the site of its former coal-fired power plant in Wilhelmshaven.

As part of the Green Wilhelmshaven project, Uniper intends to build not only the green hydrogen production facility powered by wind farms but also an import terminal for ammonia. They will be connected via pipelines to the German hydrogen backbone and to underground storage facilities in the northern part of Germany.

Electric Hydrogen said it initiated preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) work for the project in October 2024.

EVOLOH

Another US supplier, Evoloh Inc, announced in early December that it had signed a supply deal with an unnamed company described as a “large, US-based renewable energy developer”. The agreement envisages the supply of 0.5 GW of Nautilus alkaline electrolyser stacks.

The company said that the supply is secured through a non-refundable deposit that applies to the purchase cost once it finalises its Manufacturing Center of Excellence. It is building this site in Lowell, Massachusetts, while its headquarters are located in Santa Clara, California, where it currently undertakes pilot testing of dozens of stations.

According to Jimmy Rojas, founder and CEO of Evoloh, the new deal “comes on top of more than 16 GW of signed intent for supply of Nautilus stacks and modules.”

HYGREEN ENERGY

In December, Chinese sector player Hygreen Energy reported delivering a 25-MW electrolyser to Huadian Weifang Power Generation Co Ltd, part of China Huadian Corporation, which is currently working on integrating the system into an existing power plant in Weifang, Shandong province.

Hygreen Energy said that the electrolyser comprises five 5-MW stacks and that it is designed to produce 3.6 tonnes of hydrogen per day. The project is expected to be completed this quarter already.

ITM POWER

British electrolyser maker ITM Power launched the NEPTUNE V, a 5-MW containerised electrolyser plant suited for mid-sized projects, in May 2024. The signing of the company’s first contract to sell a NEPTUNE V unit was unveiled in November, while the following month it announced another contract to supply three units totalling 15 MW.

The customer under the first contract is German technical and medical gases firm Guttroff GmbH. ITM Power did not disclose the name of the other client, only mentioning that it is “a family-owned private German company” and that the electrolysers will provide green hydrogen to refuelling stations in Germany.

In between those two orders, ITM Power also announced that it won a FEED contract for a 50-MW green hydrogen plant in the European Union for an unnamed, experienced project developer. This FEED will be based on ten NEPTUNE V units. The company expects its customer to take FID for the project this year.

According to Dennis Schulz, CEO of ITM, the company achieved its strongest revenue performance in any six-month period during the first half of its fiscal year ending in April 2025.

JOHN COCKERILL

Belgian mechanical engineering company John Cockerill was the star of the show in the final quarter of 2024 as it got a supply order for advanced pressurised alkaline electrolysers totalling 640 MW for the first phase of AM Green’s 1.3-GW green ammonia project in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

In the meantime, John Cockerill and AM Green are also developing a 2-GW electrolyser manufacturing plant in Kakinada to supply the second phase of the project.

Once installed, the electrolysers will run on a mix of wind and solar power with pumped hydro storage. The entire facility is expected to begin production in the second half of 2026. AM Green has already executed offtake agreements with major players for intended end use in a range of green hydrogen applications, the announcement mentioned.

This was not John Cockerill’s only large order during the quarter as in December it was disclosed that the company was chosen alongside Johnson Matthey as the key strategic partners for ETFuels’ 120,000-tonne-per-year e-methanol project in Texas. As part of this team, John Cockerill will deliver 210 MW of its alkaline electrolyser units, along with technical services as the foundation for the FEED phase of the project, it said. The company has already invested in a Gigafactory in Texas.

LONGI

China’s LONGi Hydrogen had its own share of announcements in the fourth quarter of 2024.

First, in October, it said it had successfully shipped four sets of 1,000-normal-cubic-meter-per-hour alkaline electrolysers for a 20-MW green ammonia pilot in Uzbekistan. LONGi Hydrogen noted that it is providing the total hydrogen production solution with the key equipment for the first phase of the project with an annual production capacity of 3,000 tonnes of green ammonia. This is being done in cooperation with ACWA Power and POWERCHINA Huadong Engineering.

Then in December, LONGi Hydrogen said it had won a contract to supply multiple sets of similar electrolysers plus Balance of Plant (BoP) equipment for a project in Norway that is scheduled to start operations next year. A few days later, it also announced the signing of a deal to co-invest in green hydrogen technology firm HydrogenPro ASA, also based in Norway.

NEL

Speaking about Norwegian companies, Nel ASA announced in December that it was awarded a firm purchase order for 10 MW of alkaline electrolysers by Samsung C&T Corporation Engineering & Construction Group for a pilot pink hydrogen project in South Korea, which will demonstrate the production of hydrogen from excess nuclear power generation. The order is worth EUR 5 million and covers the supply of alkaline stacks and Balance-of-Stacks (BoS).

Earlier in the quarter, Nel won an EU grant of up to EUR 135 million for the industrialisation of its next-generation pressurised alkaline technology, which is currently being prototyped. Meanwhile, Nel’s EPC partner Saipem unveiled a scalable and modular green hydrogen solution of 100 MW called IVHY 100 and powered by Nel’s alkaline electrolysers.

While reporting its third-quarter financial results in mid-October, Nel said that the accumulated size of its top 20 Alkaline leads had surpassed 5 GW. At the same time, those associated with the PEM technology are now more than 1 GW.

OHMIUM

During the final months of 2024, PEM specialist Ohmium International signed a term sheet with SwitcH2 BV to supply electrolysers for a 300-MW offshore floating green hydrogen and ammonia synthesis project off the coast of Southern Europe. The project revolves around the installation of the equipment on board SwitcH2’s 268-metre (879-ft) floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The system will utilise nearshore solar and wind power, along with treated seawater, to produce up to 55,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually, which will then be fed into an on-deck ammonia synthesis unit, targeting a yearly output of nearly 300,000 tonnes. The project is expected to become operational by 2029.

Although concerning a significantly smaller system, Ohmium made another order announcement during the period. It said it will supply a 900-kW PEM electrolyser system for Lewis County Transit’s Zero Emission Transportation Network. It will produce green hydrogen for hydrogen-powered buses at a new Zero Emissions Transit Station in Lewis County, Washington, using city water and clean electricity from the grid. The new station is seen to be operational by next summer.

PLUG POWER

In October, Plug Power Inc announced a binding framework agreement with Australian company Allied Green Ammonia (AGA) to finalise a supply deal for 3 GW of electrolyser capacity. The new agreement follows the signing of a Basic Engineering and Design Package (BEDP) in May.

AGA plans to purchase the electrolysers for a project in the Northern Territory of Australia to produce about 2,700 metric tonnes per day of green ammonia.

“The finalisation of the supply agreement is one of the last major milestones for our project to progress to final investment decision (FID), which is expected imminently,” Alfred Benedict, chairman and managing director of Allied Green, said when the framework deal was unveiled.

When reporting its third-quarter financial results in November, Plug said that it expected to see significant deployments of electrolysers to continue in the final quarter of the year.

SUNFIRE

Last but not least, Germany-based Sunfire disclosed one new order in the final months of 2024. It said in November that Finland’s Ren-Gas has selected the company as one of the key technology providers for the Tampere Power-to-Gas project for which it will supply five 10-MW pressurised alkaline electrolysis modules for a total capacity of 50 MW.

More specifically, Sunfire will handle the design, production, testing, delivery, supervision of installation and commissioning, and performance testing of the equipment for a plant that will produce renewable e-methane for heavy road and maritime transport.