Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | NOVEMBER 11, 2024 17 (Top) Nel Hydrogen installed automated equipment to test electrolyzer units as part of a $30 million renovation of its Wallingford facility. (Left) An electrolyzer unit, which uses electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. HBJ PHOTOS | DAVID KRECHEVSKY Green hydrogen producer Nel debuts $30M Wallingford plant renovation reduction," Satyapal said. She added that the U.S. has invested more than $500 billion in clean technologies and infrastructure since Biden took office. "And for every $1 invested by the federal government, the private sector has invested $6," Satyapal said, adding that private companies have announced plans for 800 new expanded clean energy factories, and that U.S. employers have added more than 400,000 clean energy jobs during Biden's term. However, Satyapal was in Connecticut almost a year after the state and Northeast came up losers in a high-stakes competition for regional hydrogen hubs. A seven-state Northeast consor- tium led by New York and including Connecticut was not among seven hubs selected to share $7 billion in federal funding for green hydrogen investment. The decision was especially disap- pointing for Connecticut, which has decades-long history with hydrogen, a necessary component of the state's well-known and regarded fuel cell industry. A CT Mirror report contributed to this story. By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com H ydrogen is the lightest element on the periodic table, but is considered a heavy- weight when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It can be used to produce high-tem- perature heat to power industrial processes with zero-carbon emis- sions, while also playing a role in powering electric fuel cells. While hydrogen has tremendous potential for helping with decarbon- ization in the fight against climate change, it is hindered by the cost of producing it cleanly — which makes an event held recently in Wallingford a step in the right direction. Nel Hydrogen, a Norway-based company that produces clean hydrogen from renewable resources, recently hosted local, state and federal officials, to showcase its newly renovated and expanded Wallingford facility at 10 Technology Drive. The global company invested about $30 million to renovate and modernize the approximately 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to increase its capacity for producing electrolyzers, which use electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. While the two-year renovation didn't alter the building's exterior footprint, Nel converted about 8,100 square feet of formerly leased office space to expand its nearly 52,000-square- foot production area by about 15%, according to Tushar Ghuwale- wala, vice president of operations. It also installed computer-controlled robotic arms and other equipment that auto- mated about 95% of the production process, including assembly and testing, company officials said. Where it used to take a group of people two to three days to manu- ally assemble one electrolyzer unit, robots now assemble two units in one shift, the company said. Despite the investment in automa- tion, Ghuwalewala said Nel has been adding to its 150-employee staff in Wallingford, primarily for research and development. Making production more efficient enabled Nel to earn a $4.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that is intended to help reduce the cost of producing clean hydrogen. Håkon Volldal, president and CEO Nel ASA, the parent of Nel Hydrogen, said modernizing the Wallingford facility enables the company "to produce 10 times as many … elec- trolyzers as we could in the past at a 30% lower cost than we were able to do in our old factory." Still, he said, "Even though 30% sounds amazing, and it is substantial, it's not enough. Green hydrogen will still be much more expensive than, for example, natural gas." He added that Nel — which reported $333.7 million in revenue, but a net loss of $104.8 million in the third quarter of 2024 — has partnered with General Motors in Detroit to develop a "next-generation" electrolyzer that will "reduce costs by another 60% from the already reduced level, and reduce energy consumption by more than 10%." Federal role Sunita Satyapal, the director of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office within the U.S. Department of Energy, attended the event in Wall- ingford and praised Nel's efforts to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen. She also said the federal bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Biden in 2021 includes a National Clean Hydrogen Strategy that calls on the U.S. to produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen by 2050. That's five times more than the 10 million metric tons of hydrogen the U.S. currently produces. "If we get there, hydrogen would enable up to 10% total emissions Håkon Volldal Tushar Ghuwalewala

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