Founder praises UK ambition
THE founder of French hydrogen firm Lhyfe says his firm has “bet a lot” on a promising UK market, having launched North East headquarters.
Matthieu Guesné, who launched the green hydrogen business in 2017, says that with the North East as its UK headquarters, the firm is hopeful it can crack a promising market that is already ahead of some European neighbours in terms of subsidies.
Lhyfe chose Newcastle as its home in the UK following its €110m IPO on the Euronext Paris exchange in 2022.
It has since opened an outpost in Sheffield in a bid to capitalise on the region’s research and supply chain prowess. Colin Brown, who leads the UK arm, has previously said the firm is looking at a number of North East sites to host a future green hydrogen production plant.
Responding to questions from BusinessLive at its latest briefing, Mr Guesné said: “With our headquarters in Newcastle, we have projects that are really strategic for us.
“I’m seeing something that is a little bit different in the UK to what I see within the European Union.
“I see support mechanisms that want to replace natural gas with hydrogen, so we’re not talking about replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen but replacing natural gas.
“The ambition there is really big and I think it’s really positive because it’s really doing the energy transition by replacing a gas with another, which is a nice strategy.
“I also see people like Northern Gas Networks who are really believers in green hydrogen and willing to change their assets for hydrogen.
“And I see people who are working in natural gas, like Centrica, who are willing to develop hydrogen.”
Mr Guesné also said he thinks UK regulation is aligned enough with European neighbours such that hydrogen trading could take place.
In outlining his hopes for the UK he pointed to the 20GW of offshore wind projects in Scotland which have been granted licences and compared the opportunity to that which Brent oil posed in the 1970s.
He said he would like to see depleted wealth in the wake of oil decline replaced with green hydrogen.
Lhyfe is already under way with onshore production in Europe but eventually wants to set up offshore production close to wind farms which can provide the renewable electricity to drive the electrolysis process.
For that, it has developed the world’s first offshore electrolysis demonstrator – ‘Sealhyfe’ – to show how it can work. That has helped it attract €33m of subsidies from the Belgian Government to create a 10MW project in the North Sea.
Overall the firm has a 10GW pipeline across 75 projects and a 1GW deal in the offing with as yet unnamed blue chip partner.
It has three production sites in France with eight more either in construction or extension, mainly in France and Germany. The firm has talked of its ambitions to build production in the North East, and the wider UK.
Mr Guesné added that he hopes other players similar to Lhyfe enter the market and that his firm is targeting 5% market share. By 2026 the business expects to reach revenues of €100m from a position of €1.3m last year.
The ambition is really big and I think it’s really positive Matthieu Guesné