HydraB and Armstrong Capital Management have formed HyGen Energy Holdings Limited as a joint venture. The new corporation will construct, own, and operate hydrogen production facilities on a commercial scale throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
As part of the joint venture agreement, Renewable Connections Developments, one of the leading renewable energy developers in the United Kingdom, will provide all planning and development services.
It is predicted that the first hydrogen production facilities will be operational over the next couple of years, realizing HyGen’s goal of becoming one of the United Kingdom’s major suppliers of low-carbon hydrogen.
Jo Bamford, owner of HydraB, acquired Wrightbus, a Northern Ireland bus maker, via the Bamford Bus Company Limited. He has won contracts and delivered London, Belfast, Birmingham, Dublin, and Aberdeen with the first hydrogen double-decker in the world. He is the Executive Chairman of Ryze Hydrogen, which has contracts in place with Transport for London to supply hydrogen for their bus fleets.
Jo Bamford said: “Following the culmination of many months of discussion with the teams at Armstrong and Renewable Connections, the creation of HyGen Energy is a natural and exciting next step. With our combined expertise in development, technology, funding and manufacturing, we have a unique opportunity to deploy commercial-scale, low-carbon hydrogen at a cost not seen before in the UK. We will be building the hydrogen production facilities that will eventually support commercial fleet vehicles across the UK and Northern Ireland, providing a cradle to grave service.”
Andrew Newman, Head of Development and co-founder of Armstrong, is joining the new company as its Managing Director. He said: “Hydrogen is difficult to store, so we needed a business model where supply and demand were able to grow together; working with Jo Bamford’s hydrogen businesses gives us a unique opportunity to achieve this. Electrolytic hydrogen creates the opportunity to rewrite business plans, not just for the transportation industry but for renewable energy and storage projects for the next generation.”
He added: “For the last few decades people have talked about the hydrogen economy. In reality, there are currently very few viable hydrogen projects happening at a commercial scale, and those that do exist have often been grant-funded with little private capital in them. HyGen is being launched at the same time as the hydrogen economy starts in earnest, with commercial agreements enabling the deployment of largescale hydrogen projects.”
HyGen anticipates announcing a number of exciting partnerships and advancements in the coming months as it accelerates and implements its business goals.
