Independent coverage of power generation since 1981
A UK government funded feasibility study is underway on Gigastack, a project to demonstrate production of green hydrogen via gigawatt scale polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis, with the aim of dramatically reducing the cost of electrolytic hydrogen through: development of a new 5 MW stack module design; innovative semi-automated manufacturing; deployment of very large scale, 100 MW+, electrolysers consisting of multiple 5 MW units; and exploiting siting synergies with GW scale renewables.
The deployment of PEM electrolysers on such a large scale has not been possible to date, as it requires low-cost stack modules much larger (and automated) manufacturing facilities (the largest electrolyser factories globally are capable of less than 30 MW of capacity output per annum). ITM Power will address these issues, Ørsted will look at synergies with offshore wind, and Element Energy will carry out market analysis.
