Management at hydrogen fuel cell maker Intelligent Energy are considering four East Midlands sites for a £100 million gigafactory – but could still take it to the EU or Asia if UK costs are too high.
The Loughborough tech company says up to 600 jobs could be created at the factory making hydrogen power units for the next generation of cars, planes, trucks and drones.
They have identified four possible East Midlands sites, but say it would be short-sighted not to consider building it overseas because of the huge costs of doing it at home. Either way Intelligent Energy hopes to start laying the foundations in 2024.
Chief executive David Woolhouse told BusinessLive said: “Although we are continuing our search for a location in the East Midlands, mainland Europe and Asia hold great potential for us.
“As a business, it would be remiss of us not to consider how much cheaper land is outside the UK, how much more the hydrogen economy is being encouraged elsewhere in the world, and the increased levels of support from governments to be found elsewhere.”
Mr Woolhouse previously said plans to build in central England would need millions of pounds of government support, and said they had been in conversation with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
In June he said if he couldn't get the UK Government to back the business, he would consider going to Poland or Germany, where set-up costs and land prices were cheaper, and where state interest was high.
He said there were probably less than 20 companies doing what his company is doing in the transport sector, with Intelligent Energy the only one of its kind in the UK.
In the latest update, he said the factory would have capacity to make 20,000 automotive fuel cells a year, which combined could create more than a gigawatt of electricity – which is where the gigafactory term comes from.
Mr Woolhouse said: “We have explained to our 240 staff, that if we build in the East Midlands we will all move to the new facility.
“If we build manufacturing elsewhere, our scientists, engineers and commercial staff will remain in our existing location in Loughborough, with the plan to develop a small prototyping factory close by.
“Our final decision will depend on the level of support we get from the UK Government.
“Currently, we are actively engaging with four sites across the East Midlands, and we are not looking at any other sites beyond those four at present time.”
Accounts show that in 2021 Intelligent Energy Ltd made pre-tax losses of £13.8 million, on the back of £14.5 million in losses the year before, but said that losses were expected in the short term as it continued to invest heavily in its products and their commercialisation.
It said there were plans to increase manufacturing capacity to £500 million and it continued to get multi-million pound funding from its parent company, the Meditor Group.
The business was launched as a Loughborough University spin-off 21 years ago, developing hydrogen fuel cells to replace batteries or combustion engines to produce between 1kW to 200kW of power. The low carbon units can also be used in power stations, telecoms towers and generators as well as homes.
The company said that over the last year its order book has increased tenfold and it had recruited 96 more people.
It already deals with global players such as BMW – to power driverless vehicles that move pallets around its Leipzig production line – and Shell, and is working on an aerospace product which has drawn an “extensive enquiry list”.
One of the biggest orders so far has been to provide standby power to support the grid in the US.
