Under the UK’s Lighter than Aire (LTA) hydrogen valley project, which secured €20m ($22.9m) in funding, the forklifts will be used at two warehouses in northern England.

IE will work with material handling equipment distributor Briggs Equipment to equip forklifts with its IE-Lift fuel cells, a hybrid fuel cell battery system which delivers 1kW of continuous power and a peak load of 7kW.

It’s the first specific use case to be announced under the LTA plans, which aims to develop over 4,500 tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity and deploy more than 150 heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles.

David Fields, Head of Product Line, IE-Power at IE, said the deployment is a milestone in the adoption of fuel cells in UK warehouses and logistics.

“By embedding hydrogen-powered equipment within active logistics sites, the project will demonstrate hydrogen’s potential to cut emissions while improving operational efficiency,” he added.

Material handling is slated as a promising use case for hydrogen fuel cell systems, where high utilisation demands rapid refuelling and centralised operations.

Fuel cell vehicles can be quickly refuelled, alleviating the need for large charging infrastructure for battery systems.

US-based hydrogen firm Plug Power has deployed more than 45,000 of its drop-in fuel cell replacements for applications like forklifts.

Despite this, their real-world deployment remains niche compared to battery alternatives, with hydrogen systems facing high upfront costs, fuel supply and pricing inconsistency.