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ITM Power PLC on Monday said it has decided to substantially expand its facilities at Bessemer Park, Sheffield, signing a contract for the lease of additional factory and office space. ITM Power designs and manufactures electrolysers, based on proton exchange membrane technology, to produce green hydrogen. It is based in Sheffield, England. The decision follows an announcement in mid-March, when ITM said it signed an agreement with Power On Connections Ltd to quadruple its power supply at Bessemer Park by the end of 2024, enabling ITM to significantly increased product testing. ITM said the initial lease period is for 15 years, covering more than 83,000 square feet, with fitting out of the laboratories and validation areas beginning towards the end of 2023 and ITM occupying the facility early in 2024. ‘A key component of our 12-month priorities plan as set out in January is the debottlenecking of our fabrication, testing and product validation,’ ITM said in a statement. ‘The expansion will allow us to create a dedicated [research and development] and product validation centre which will include science laboratories and testing facilities for future technology developments, and which will enable us to use the existing fabrication space at Bessemer Park more effectively for higher volume output.’ ITM said staff currently operate from a number of different locations in Sheffield, and it intends to consolidate all of its workforce and operations at Bessemer Park, both at its existing unit and the new unit. ‘This will allow us to work together more effectively,’ it said. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Schulz added: ‘We are well on track on delivering against our 12-month plan laid out in January. One of our priorities was the need for ITM to strengthen product validation and to debottleneck factory space and product testing. Today’s announcement is not only a critically important step on our journey to scale up manufacturing, but it will also enable the focussed development of future technologies.’ Shares in ITM were up 0.5% to 85.40 pence each in London on Monday morning. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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