A hydrogen group backed by Lord Bamford and Peter Hargreaves is set to create 1,100 jobs in the North of England over the next two years.
The boss of ITM Power, Graham Cooley, said the company would nearly quadruple its current workforce of 400 after it opened a second factory in Sheffield in 2023.
ITM Power already has the world’s biggest plant making a specialised form of electrolyser that extracts hydrogen from water and is powered by renewables. This is so-called ‘green hydrogen’, meaning it has no carbon footprint.
The future’s bright: Hydrogen is a key pillar of Boris Johnson’s ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution
Hydrogen is a key pillar of Boris Johnson’s ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution. Some buses and lorries already use it as fuel but there are also plans to pipe it into the gas network and use it to power aeroplanes.
ITM Power is worth £2.5billion on the AIM market, having seen its value surge by two-thirds in the past few weeks. In that time the EU has launched a major new funding strategy, while the war in Ukraine has focused attention on the need to wean the West off Russian gas.
Cooley said: ‘Now there’s a new imperative – fuel security. What’s happened over the last few weeks with Russia is accelerating that.’
He added that the Government’s push to back green hydrogen had fallen behind, saying: ‘I think this is a moment that will galvanise action on plans already developed.’
Hargreaves, the co-founder of investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, owns 4.5 per cent of the company. Lord Bamford, head of the JCB empire, has an 8 per cent holding.
