2024 Local weather Tech Firms to Watch: Electrical Hydrogen and its push to mass-produce a carbon-free gas

Electrical Hydrogen needs to deal with these points by growing electrolyzers which have about 10 occasions the capability of at the moment’s customary gadgets whereas additionally being extra reasonably priced and environment friendly.

The corporate is already working a pair of electrolyzer crops in California, together with a one-megawatt facility in San Carlos and a 10-megawatt mission in San Jose. In April, Electrical Hydrogen opened an electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Devens, Massachusetts, which can crank out its first line of 100-megawatt electrolyzers. The corporate additionally raised $380 million in funding in 2023 from backers together with BP, United Airways, and Microsoft, making it the primary electrolyzer firm to be valued at over $1 billion. 

Key indicators

• Business: Hydrogen
• Based: 2020
• Headquarters: Natick, Massachusetts, USA
• Notable truth: Two of the corporate’s three cofounders got here from First Photo voltaic, a photo voltaic panel producer that’s additionally featured on this 12 months’s checklist.

Potential for impression

To gradual the tempo of local weather change, we have to drastically cut back our use of fossil fuels. Closely polluting industries like fertilizer and chemical manufacturing are notoriously troublesome to wash up. Fertilizer alone accounted for two% of world emissions in 2022, based on a research revealed in Scientific Studies. It’s additionally tough to get rid of emissions from sure sorts of transportation, together with delivery and aviation, primarily as a result of fuels can merely retailer extra vitality for a given weight than at the moment’s batteries. 

It’s these sectors the place hydrogen exhibits probably the most promise, as a result of it may be made into gas that produces solely water vapor as a by-product. Nevertheless it’s exhausting to make clear hydrogen cost-competitive with fossil fuels. 

Caveats

Electrical Hydrogen might want to show that its 100-megawatt electrolyzer methods can function reliably at a low price. To make low-emission hydrogen, the electrolyzers might want to use loads of renewable vitality, which can not all the time be obtainable. As well as, Electrical Hydrogen doesn’t share many particulars publicly about how its know-how works, which makes it troublesome to gauge the corporate’s claims and progress.