2024-07-04 06:30:59
In the hydrogen sector, fuel cells play a crucial role in mobility and the supply of certain electricity networks. HDF Energy has chosen high-power batteries, which will be manufactured near Bordeaux from 2025.
Announcements of new industrial sites in France are still rare enough to be worth dwelling on. At the end of May, HDF Energy inaugurated its first fuel cell manufacturing plant in Blanquefort (Gironde). A key step for the Bordeaux-based company whose initials stand for Hydrogène de France and whose ambition is to decarbonize heavy maritime and rail mobility, as well as electricity production for public electricity networks, three vast global markets for electricity production solutions based on hydrogen and renewable energies.
The plant was installed on the former Ford gearbox manufacturing site, where the “circuit terrain” was located, in the Bordeaux metropolitan area. On 7,000 m2, HDF Energy will deploy its capacity to produce high-power fuel cells. The plant was inaugurated at the end of May, the industrial processes are being finalized and pre-series production should start in early 2025. We will first manufacture 1 MW batteries, then our R&D and industrialization programs will make it possible to develop a range of batteries up to 10 MW. From 2030, the plant should reach an annual production capacity of 1000 MW. explains Hanane El Hamraoui, industrial director and deputy general manager of HDF.
A global market
Founded in 2012 by Damien Havard, HDF Energy made its mark with its first projects, ClearGen in Martinique and CEOG in Guyana. The first is a 1 MW fuel cell producing 7 TWh of electricity per year from unused hydrogen from a refinery. This is a unique project of its kind. The second is like the hydrogen power plants that HDF wants to develop: 55 MWc of solar photovoltaic energy are coupled with a 16 MW electrolyser capable of producing 600 tonnes of hydrogen per year. With additional stationary batteries, the storage capacity is 128 MWh. Finally, two 1.5 MW fuel cells each make it possible to inject electricity continuously into the network, even at night. The project for this power plant in western Guyana, currently under construction, will be able to produce 50 GWh of electricity annually, at any time, and 100% renewable.
“We now have several projects of this type of Renewstable® power plant in development, either on isolated sites and areas where fuel oil power plants need to be replaced, or in countries with a lot of renewable energy. HDF Energy is thus present on five continents, notably in Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, several African countries, Greece and Oceania.” specifies Hanane El Hamraoui.
The fuel cell is at the heart of these power plants. CEOG’s were manufactured by Ballard Power System, a Canadian company specializing in high-power PEM-type batteries, with high technological maturity and capable of having a lifespan of 25 years. In order to have its own production autonomy, HDF Energy signed a partnership agreement with Ballard in 2019, to be able to manufacture its own fuel cells in Blanquefort.
In addition to the power plant market, HDF Energy is also targeting the maritime and rail heavy mobility market. In the maritime sector, it is still difficult to know which decarbonized solutions shipowners will turn to (hydrogen or hydrogen-derived products such as ammonia or e-fuels), but HDF Energy can offer an innovative solution for power auxiliaries and ship propulsion, as well as the supply of clean electricity to ships at dock. HDF Energy addresses this market through strategic partnerships, such as with ABB Marine and Ports, the world leader in ship electrification. In the rail sector, the options are more limited, which will allow HDF to soon announce the market share it will target for the 100,000 diesel locomotives existing in the world, which might be replaced by a hydrogen propulsion system.
Public support and growth prospects
The Blanquefort plant will therefore see 80% of its production exported to supply these different markets. Certified BREEAM “very good” for its environmental impact, it represents an investment of 20 million euros for HDF. It has been supported by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region since 2018. Very recently, it has also been supported by the European Commission, which approved the financing of HDF Energy’s industrial project by the French government as part of the Hy2move wave of IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) Hydrogen financing. At the international level, the World Bank and the Green Climate Fund have helped finance HDF’s Renewstable® power plant project in Barbados.
This public support is necessary because for the moment, in its development phase, HDF Energy is still in deficit, to the tune of €7.8 million in 2023. Nevertheless, thanks to its IPO on Euronext in 2021, it has sufficient funds to continue its projects. From 2024, HDF also hopes that their realization will boost its turnover. The latter might ultimately represent 12 to 17% of the €5 billion of projects currently in its portfolio.
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