Integration partner, Hensoldt Nexeya France will support the implementation of the 63 modular EL 4 electrolysers, along with the compressing and storage equipment. The Folell’Hy project expects to produce two tonnes of green hydrogen per year.

The plant, located on the French island of Corsica, is reported to have faced several hundred hours of energy losses per year due to curtailment. Instead, Enapter’s systems will prevent this by converting the surplus energy into green hydrogen.

Since 2017, the excess renewable energy has been lost due to the grid operator limiting the amount that can be fed into the grid, because of stability constraints on the electricity network.

H2 View understands that the produced hydrogen will be used in heavy maritime mobility, specifically for a hydrogen-powered training ship at the vocational maritime school in Bastia.

“Avoiding the loss of excess renewable electricity, as Folell’Hy aims to do, is one of the biggest challenges and opportunities we face in the energy transition,” explained Jürgen Laakmann, Enapter CEO.

“Together with Corsica Sole and Hensoldt Nexeya France, we look forward to piloting and proving a solution that brings strong renewables production capacities to island regions.”

Corsica plans to scale-up to larger projects at a later stage, but for now the pilot project will act as the first step in gathering real-time data.

In April (2024), Enapter recorded a 730% year-on-year order increase for its AEM electrolysers. The company revealed that the majority of orders came from Europe, with US orders totalling around €1.5m ($1.6m).

Read more: Enapter reports 730% AEM electrolyser order increase in Q1 2024