ITM Power creates new Australian subsidiary

Energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power has formed a new Australian subsidiary to develop the market for its rapid response electrolyser technology, which will be headed up by Neil Thompson as managing director.

ITM pointed out that Australia is now the world's second-largest liquefied natural gas exporter and is building momentum to develop a similar export market for hydrogen. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), an Australian government agency established to accelerate Australia's shift to secure, affordable and reliable renewable energy, announced in May 2017 that exporting renewable energy (in the form of hydrogen, ammonia or embodied in processed raw materials), will form one of its four core investment priorities.

Thompson is an experienced executive director who was MD/Principal Risk Mitigation Consultant at Pine River Business Planning as a member of the Institute of Management Consultants servicing the consulting engineering and clean technology sectors.

Chief executive officer Graham Cooley said: "We are delighted to announce the formation of ITM Power Pty Ltd and the appointment of Dr Neil Thompson as the MD of the newly formed company. Australia is an exciting new market for green hydrogen production and we are delighted to make this important first step to allow ITM Power to capitalise on the significant growth opportunities and accelerating momentum in the hydrogen sector in Australia."

Also on Thursday, the company said it currently has £31.2m of projects under contract and a further £10.5m of contracts in the final stages of negotiation constituting a total of £41.7m across all geographies, subject to exchange rate variations.

At 1135 GMT, the shares were down 1.5% to 37.30p.