The facility will allow the firm to test 1.3MW of fuel cells simultaneously, as it plans to expand its product line and customer support, using two test laboratories supplied by Finnish-based Proventia.
Located at the Chelveston Renewable Energy Park in Northamptonshire, the site will also host an Enapter AEM electrolyser which will use the park’s renewable energy to produce over 100 tonnes of green hydrogen per year for use in testing.
Additionally, electricity produced by IE’s fuel cell testing is planned to be fed back into the local grid.
It comes as the company looks to increase its stake in decarbonising regional and sub-regional aircraft.
IE said the increases testing capacity will ensure it can develop systems with the power density, efficiency, reliability and durability of fuel cells for aviation.
David Woolhouse, CEO of IE, said the facility was a “significant investment” in the UK’s clean energy plans and would be among the “foremost” of its kind in Europe.
“Our facility will test fuel cells up to an output of 1.3MW, meaning fuel cell arrays will be more readily available to the aviation sector, significantly increasing flight ranges without the increase in weight that would come from traditional batteries with this power output,” he added.
IE has a long running history in the aviation sector. Its fuel cells powered the first manned fuel cell demonstrator aircraft with Boeing in 2008, as well as ZeroAvia’s first flight in 2020.
Spotlight on… Intelligent Energy
Jonathan Douglas-Smith, Head of Sales IE-FLIGHTTM at Intelligent Energy (IE), has been working at the Loughborough, UK-based fuel cell company for six years. Immersed in the development of aviation-focused products, his journey began working on the IE-SOARTM product line focused on drones.
“Back then, I would say [IE-SOAR] was quite an immature product line,” he told H2 View.
“I worked on the commercial growth of that low technology readiness level (TRL) solution in 2018 to commercial deployment and where we are today – supplying drone operators around the world.”
Now working on the company’s product line focused on larger-scale aviation applications, the Head of Sales explained IE has a firmly placed stake in the sector, running longer than many realise…
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