A joint venture between two companies aims to build, own and operate commercial scale hydrogen production facilities across the UK and Ireland – with indications that options for public and domestic use are in the pipeline.
HydraB and Armstrong Capital Management have entered into a partnership to launch HyGen Energy Holdings Limited.
Wrightbus and HydraB are owned by Jo Bamford, who supplies Aberdeen’s familiar world-first hydrogen double deckers, also seen in London, Belfast, Dublin and Birmingham.
Andrew Newman, head of development and co-founder of Armstrong, will join the new company as managing director.
Mr Newman said: “For the last few decades people have talked about the hydrogen economy. In reality, there are currently very few viable hydrogen projects happening at a commercial scale, and those that do exist have often been grant-funded with little private capital in them.
We are already working on projects with the specific objective of making hydrogen available to all road users, including the public
“Hydrogen is difficult to store, so we needed a business model where supply and demand were able to grow together; working with Jo Bamford’s hydrogen businesses gives us a unique opportunity to achieve this.
“HyGen is being launched at the same time as the hydrogen economy starts in earnest, with commercial agreements enabling the deployment of largescale hydrogen projects.”
However, Andrew also signalled that the new business model may open up options for domestic hydrogen fuel production.
He added: “As well as deploying hydrogen for commercial customers, we are already working on projects with the specific objective of making hydrogen available to all road users, including the public.
Low cost hydrogen for HGVs and cars
“We anticipate access to public and domestic hydrogen to increase as the technology and supporting infrastructure evolve over the coming years and the supply of hydrogen cars and HGVs increases.”
Jo Bamford said: “With our combined expertise in development, technology, funding and manufacturing, we have a unique opportunity to deploy commercial-scale, low-carbon hydrogen at a cost not seen before in the UK.
“We will be building the hydrogen production facilities that will eventually support commercial fleet vehicles across the UK and Northern Ireland.”
Public use hydrogen development comes as BMW Group recently announced it is focusing on an alternative emissions-free technology to be used in the small-series BMW iX5 Hydrogen, with production of the hydrogen drive component already under way.
It is anticipated that HyGen’s first hydrogen production facilities will be operational within the next couple of years, with the target of becoming one of the UK’s leading providers of low carbon hydrogen.
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