Lhyfe is targeting installed capacity of 20 Megawatt (MW) in 2024, representing a production capacity of up to 8 tonnes per day (tpd), following a doubling in revenues to €1.3 million in 2023.
However consolidated net losses rose to -€33.6 million in 2023, widening from -€25.8 million a year earlier, as costs rose to meet an expanding workforce and expenses relating to its ever-growing pipeline of projects.
The company said it now intends to co-develop projects with investors and sell associated development, construction and operations services – through development and asset management fees – which will bring ‘long term revenues and higher return on equity’.
“Based on this new model, Lhyfe’s trajectory is now tilted towards an earlier EBITDA breakeven,” it states.
In its full year 2023 results, the company said it is targeting 2026 Group EBITDA margin of 10% and ‘above 30%’ by 2030, by which time it also aims to have 3 GW of assets under management. It described its cash position as ‘sound’ with €114 million at the end of 2023; in December, Lhyfe closed an inaugural €28m green syndicated loan with its banking partners.
Its first partnership for 1 gigawatt (GW) of projects will be concluded by the end of this year and it is targeting a four-fold revenue increase in 2024, according to the statement. Its pipeline, which now stands at over 75 projects, is worth over €10 billion.
Matthieu Guesné, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Lhyfe, said it achieved “significant milestones” in the green hydrogen sector last year.
The 2023 revenue rise, up from €0.6 million in 2022, reflects the ramp up of the Bouin production unit, which now runs at full capacity (it will rise to 2.5 MW), and the expansion of its French portfolio (Hype, Brétéché, Manitou, John Deere) and for the first time in Germany (Hypion). Bouin’s on-storage capacity, currently 700 kg, will rise to almost 5 tonnes.
Two new sites were inaugurated in France, at Buléon and Bessières, and two new bulk sites in Croixrault and Sorigny are now in construction phase, targeting 2tpd of green hydrogen with 5 MW installed electrolysis capacity. It has secured land for the Fonderies du Poitou on-site project which will generate up to 40 tpd, alongside partner TSE.
Subsidies support scale up
Other highlights include continued innovation at Sealhyfe – billed as the world’s first offshore green hydrogen production site (up to 4 tpd from 2026) – signing of a 10-year offtake with HYmpulsion to supply seven hydrogen stations in the Alps, and launch of a 10 MW project in the North Sea, supported by €33m of subsidies.
Lhyfe, CIP and Flexens have jointly launched the Åland Energy Island project, aiming to develop hydrogen production on the Finnish islands, integrated with GW-scale offshore wind.
Scale up has also been boosted by €149m of subsidies from the French Government for a 100 MW industrial project in Le Havre. Yesterday the European Commission announced €900m in state aid to accelerate green hydrogen, biogas and biomethane in France (click here).
Lhyfe has also secured a €14m grant for the Vallmoll bulk project, its first project in Spain, providing up to 5 tpd.
Larger 5 MW and 10 MW sites started construction in 2023, raising its ‘construction phase’ pipeline to 39 MW, compared with 9 MW at the end of 2022.
Construction started at the Schwӓbisch Gmünd bulk site, providing up to 4tpd of green hydrogen with 10 MW of installed electrolysis capacity, supplying local mobility and industrial uses, as well as at Brake, providing similar volumes.
The Tübingen site for Deutsche Bahn is installed and ready for the start of operations.
Last month Lhyfe and SAF+ International Group signed an MoU to develop the production of e-SAF from green and renewable hydrogen – with a capacity of more than 100 tpd, with 300 MW of installed electrolysis capacity – and launched its first UK project in the North East of England, which would have an initial capacity of 8 tpd of green hydrogen on 20 MW capacity.
