Hystar will expand its 50MW Oslo plant, with no location yet decided for US/Canada facility
Norwegian company Hystar, which makes proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, has announced it will expand its 50MW factory in the Høvik suburb of Oslo to 4GW of fully automated manufacturing capacity from early next year, which will become fully operational by 2026.
The company also plans to set up its first site in North America next year, scaling production up to multi-gigawatt capacity by 2027.
“As we continue to scale up our operations, we are now looking at opportunities beyond Europe — the North American market has created a highly favourable environment for companies like ours to thrive in. We are looking forward to identifying the ideal North American location for Hystar,” said CEO Fredrik Mowill.
“Both the US and Canada have attractive incentives on offer, demonstrating a clear commitment to providing our industry with much-needed certainty and financial support,” he added.
The Biden administration set out the clean hydrogen production tax credit (or 45V), worth up to $3/kg, in its flagship Inflation Reduction Act passed last year — and although guidance on exactly how carbon emissions will be calculated is still outstanding, many project developers have already announced they will prioritise investment in the US.
Electrolysers are also included in the list of clean energy technologies eligible for the 48C tax credit of up to 30% of investment costs for manufacturing. However, this incentive is competitively allocated, and the first application round closed in August, with no visibility on when the next round will be.
Canada meanwhile offers an up-to-40% tax credit for equipment and installation costs incurred by blue and green hydrogen project developers, as well as a 30% tax rebate for electrolyser makers on manufacturing costs.
Hystar says that its Vega system has 10% lower energy consumption compared to “conventional PEM electrolysers”, while its Mira system — which is optimised for direct input from variable renewable energy sources, offers a “150% increase in production rates”.
However, while Hystar anticipates that scale of its commerical operations in North America will exceed those in Europe “within the decade”, its current orderbook is entirely European — and at a small scale relative to its ambitions.
The company, which was founded in 2021 as a spin-off from research institute Sintef, is only set to deliver its first electrolyser to a consortium of Norwegian firms Equinor, Yara Clean Ammonia, and Gassco in the last quarter of this year.
Hystar also has a second 5MW order placed by Poland’s largest private energy company Polenergia to be completed in Q3 2024.
An expansion of the Norwegian factory to gigawatt-scale was originally announced in January following the close of a $26m Series B funding round co-led by Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi and early investor AP Ventures, with Japan’s Nippon Steel and ArcelorMittal-backed Finnidus also providing capital.
Hystar also suggests that it may invest in additional gigawatt-scale factories before 2030, although no further details on which continent will host this capacity have been provided.
