“Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corporation (head office: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture; president and CEO: Takao Konishi; hereinafter, “Toshiba ESS”)is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Fusion Fuel Green PLC (hereinafter, “Fusion Fuel”), an European green hydrogen technology company, to study procurement, manufacturing, sales process, and technical collaboration, aimed at expanding sales of electrolyzers in markets such as Europe and Australia.
As part of this collaboration, Fusion Fuel will evaluate the use of Toshiba ESS membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) in its proprietary Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) eletrolyzers. MEAs are a core component of PEM electrolyzers, and those under development by Toshiba ESS are highly cost-competitive and require the use of significantly less catalyst than conventional solutions. In addition, Toshiba ESS will explore using the local sales channels it has developed in areas such as the thermal power business to expand sales of Fusion Fuel’s PEM electrolyzers in Australia and other countries. Furthermore, the two companies will also explore potential collaboration for future sales of Toshiba ESS solid oxide electrolysis cells (“SOEC”*1), which Toshiba ESS targets bringing to market in 2025.
Development of the green hydrogen economy has accelerated amidst the mobilisation of significant funding support in Europe and Asia for hydrogen projects and electrolyzer technology as part of a broader decarbonization initiative. The European Union has set targets of 6 GW of electrolyzer capacity by 2024 and 40 GW by 2030, which would produce approximately 5 million metric tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen per annum*2. Australia has also taken an interest in the hydrogen industry, with the federal government announcing its own national hydrogen strategy in 2019 and various investments planned under a long-term technology investment roadmap aimed at creating a new, world-leading export industry.
Fusion Fuel, which has significant operations in Portugal, Spain and Ireland, has developed a solar-to-hydrogen generator which can produce green hydrogen using only solar energy. At the heart of its technology is a proprietary miniaturized PEM electrolyzer, which recovers waste heat from the integrated solar concentration process to improve efficiency by reducing the energy required to split water. The company has built a pipeline of over 2.4 GW of green hydrogen projects that spans opportunities across Europe, MENA and Australia. Fusion Fuel was identified in the Portuguese National Hydrogen Strategy as a company of strategic importance involved in the development and production of green hydrogen-related technologies.
Jaime Silva, Fusion Fuel’s Chief Technology Officer, said, “We are very excited to have entered into this agreement with Toshiba ESS to work together to achieve our collective ambition of a low-carbon society powered by green hydrogen. We view this partnership as an opportunity to leverage our complementary strengths and create a unique and differentiated commercial offering in both in European markets, as well as globally. Toshiba’s advancements in MEA design and production promise to further extend our near-term cost advantage, while our longer-term aspiration of collaborating on SOEC technology – for which our novel solar-to-hydrogen solution is particularly well-suited – has the potential to establish both Toshiba and Fusion Fuel as leaders at the forefront of hydrogen innovation.”
Shigehiro Kawahara, Vice President of the Energy Aggregation Div., says, “Since Toshiba ESS began working on fuel cell systems in the 1960s, we have been advancing the development of hydrogen-related technologies. Striving toward the realization of a hydrogen society, we aim to provide high value-added hydrogen solutions by integrating related technologies such as renewable energy-derived hydrogen energy. By expanding our business through this collaboration, we will help make a carbon-neutral society a reality.””