ITM Power gears up for green hydrogen revolution

On the eastern edge of Sheffield, just off the M1, a gleaming manufacturing facility sits amongst the faded industrial red brick of the city’s storied past. ITM Power’s new electrolyser gigafactory - a 134,000 square foot monster that opened in 2021 - is just a stone’s throw from Forgemasters, Sheffield’s last remaining steel furnace. According to Graham Cooley, ITM’s long time CEO, another of Steel City’s most famous names has even closer ties to the new HQ. “We’re on the site that was British Steel Stainless Steel, and you would have seen the whole steel industry around here,” Cooley told The Engineer on a recent visit to the gigafactory.

UK steelmaking may be a shadow of its former glory, but the decline in heavy industry up and down the land has been softened somewhat by the growth of high value manufacturing. ITM Power is one of those leading the charge, developing and manufacturing proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers to convert renewable energy into hydrogen, helping drive the transition to net zero.