This month’s Sustainable Business Spotlight features an exciting company here in Devens: Electric Hydrogen.
Dubbed “the First $1 Billion Green Hydrogen Startup” by the Wall Street Journal and a TIME Magazine “Top Greentech Company of 2024” (alongside other Devens businesses including Commonwealth Fusion and Ascend Elements) Electric Hydrogen manufactures, delivers and commissions the world’s most powerful electrolyzers for critical industries to produce the lowest cost green hydrogen.
Electric Hydrogen has a team of more than 300 people with operations in California and Massachusetts (including Devens and Natick). The company was founded in 2020 and has raised more than $600M from financial and strategic investors, including $65M in total support from the Department of Energy.
Here in Devens, the company recently opened the “Gigafactory.” This facility is where Electric Hydrogen’s electrolyzer stacks are manufactured and tested before shipment. The factory uses advanced manufacturing technology with an annual production capacity of 1.2GW.
Beyond producing green hydrogen, a sustainable fuel source that we will talk more about later, Electric Hydrogen is also committed to corporate sustainability. The Devens Enterprise Commission was excited to learn about (and partner on some of) the following initiatives:
- Power Purchase Agreement for local renewable generation to offset their industrial emissions, with a goal to achieve 100% renewable energy supply by the end of the year!
- A focus on employee health and wellness including recreational clubs and green teams poised to get involved in the community and take advantage of Devens’ natural resources. There are plans to partner with the DEC on community events such as trail maintenance and tree planting projects.
- Working with the Transit service and the DEC to obtain a shuttle stop to connect Alewife to the Electric Hydrogen offices (to supplement the Ayer MBTA station that already exists).
What is Green Hydrogen, and Why Is It Important?
Green hydrogen is an emerging sustainable fuel source. According to the World Economic Forum: “You might encounter the terms ‘grey’, ‘blue’, ‘green’ being associated when describing hydrogen technologies. It all comes down to the way it is produced. Hydrogen emits only water when burned but creating it can be carbon intensive. Depending on production methods, hydrogen can be grey, blue or green – and sometimes even pink, yellow or turquoise. However, green hydrogen is the only type produced in a climate-neutral manner making it critical to reach net zero by 2050.”
What Are Hydrogen Electrolyzers?
The product that Electric Hydrogen produces, electrolyzers, are a crucial step in producing green hydrogen. They perform a process known as “electrolysis” to create green hydrogen. Unlike other methods of hydrogen production, such as natural gas steam reforming, electrolysis does not produce any greenhouse gases or other pollutants. This makes it an ideal solution for producing hydrogen on a large scale without harming the environment.
The following visual from BMarko Structures shows the process of creating green hydrogen with an electrolyzer:
Learn More
Want to find out more on Electric Hydrogen and the exciting work they are doing? Check out their website here and follow them on LinkedIn here.
Thanks for reading! Check back in on the Devens Forward dashboard and the Devens Climate Action Toolkit for Businesses to learn more about how you and your business can contribute to and support local climate action.