Having entered into a commercial agreement with Italian-based Duferco Energia, the companies will kick off their partnership with a 1.25MW green hydrogen pilot project at Duferco’s industrial site in Giammoro, Italy.

With intentions of installing 50 of its HEVO-Solar PEM electrolyser units, the facility is expected to produce up to 46 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, which is planned to be used to power a molten carbonate fuel cell (MFFC) system.

Read more: Fusion Fuel’s decentralised, scalable solar-to-hydrogen solution

Fusion Fuel has said the new agreement will offer the opportunity to enter neighbouring markets such as Tunisia and Alegria.

Expected to be installed in 2024, the Italian project follows shortly on from Fusion Fuel commissioning Portugal’s ‘first’ integrated solar-to-green hydrogen plant, which saw its hydrogen production technology paired with a 200kW Ballard fuel cell, which can feed electricity into the Portuguese electric grid during periods of peak demand.

Read more: Fusion Fuel commissions Portugal’s ‘first’ integrated solar-to-green hydrogen plant

“This is an exciting development for Fusion Fuel as we begin to expand our commercial operation beyond Iberia into Southern Europe,” said Nuno Filipe, Head of Commercial for Europe at Fusion Fuel. “This agreement not only represents our entry point into the Italian market, but more importantly the start of what we hope will become a strong anchor relationship with Duferco Group to sell our technology and develop projects in Italy and, ultimately, in adjacent markets like Tunisia and Algeria.”

Marco Castagna, CEO of Duferco Energia, commented, “Duferco is committed, through its industrial presence in different sectors, to commercially developing the application by adapting it to different industrial contexts and thus accelerating the decarbonisation process within the hard-to-abate sectors.”

Zach Steele, Co-Head of Fusion Fuel, explained that the company would look to replicate its project build up in Italy, as it is in the Iberian Peninsula.

Read more: Fusion Fuel to support the Spanish Hydrogen Roadmap targets with new agreement with AESA

Steele, said, “As a small player in the nascent green hydrogen sector, it is critical that we remain laser-focused on the markets in which we have a compelling value proposition and material competitive advantage.

“We believe this partnership with Duferco will serve as a platform for both companies to establish a significant near-term commercial footprint. Our objective is to replicate what we are doing in the Iberian Peninsula, developing a mobility backbone in the southern part of the country, beginning with two to four refuelling projects, as well as industrial projects centred around key industrial regions in Northern Italy.”