In 2023, a company specializing in the production of electricity from green hydrogen will open a plant at the Ford industrial site, which was abandoned in 2019.
In 2023, the massive Blanquefort industrial complex on the outskirts of Bordeaux, which Ford abandoned after closing its factory in 2019, will welcome its first company, specializing in the production of electricity from green hydrogen.
Under license from Canadian Ballard Power Systems, the unit, which will occupy about 3.5 hectares of the site’s more than 80, will employ around 100 people in the manufacture of high-powered fuel cells, explained Damien Havard, president of Hydrogen de France, to AFP (HDF Energy).
These batteries will power high-capacity power plants that generate non-intermittent renewable electricity from green or carbon-free hydrogen and store it in a storage system, which HDF Energy is developing and designing with partners. HDF Energy is currently working on the CEOG plant in Guyana, which will be the “world’s first multi-megawatt hydrogen plant, producing stable and competitive renewable electricity” with an annual capacity of 50 GWh.
Damien Havard, who expects a turnover of 100 million euros in 2025, assures that HDF Energy, which employs only about 25 people and has a turnover of two million euros, is profitable. In particular, HDF has projects in Indonesia and Mexico.
The Bordeaux plant represents a 20 million euro investment. The company launched an IPO on Euronext in Paris to raise funds for its costly development, which was recently approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). Damien Havard currently owns 80% of the company and plans to “maintain a significant role” after the transaction is completed.
