Man has been harnessing the wind for over 5,500 years, since one clever chap decided to stick a bedsheet on a stick to make his boat go faster. Since then, we have used the free energy provided by one bit of the earth’s surface heating up more than another bit and atmospheric pressure moving between the two points to grind corn, pump water and dry clothes.
However, it took until 1887 and a canny Scotsman by the name of James Blythe to rig up a windmill in his Aberdeenshire back yard to switch a light bulb on in his Victorian AirBnB. And that eureka moment led to the creation of a new industry, where people were able to make electricity for free (minus the land costs, materials cost, labour, maintenance, set-up fees, licencing and distribution costs) from wind. If you take a 10-minute drive from Blythe’s holiday home to the beach and look west into the North Sea, you’ll see the legacy of his work in the construction of a 500MW offshore wind farm off the Firth of Forth.
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Over the following years of his life, electrical engineer, Blythe perfected his prototype and eventually scaled-up his design to power a lunatic asylum in Montrose. But after his death his technology was deemed by the great and good (of the coal- and gas-driven) energy production industry as ‘uneconomic’ (and nothing to do with the energy barons’ shareholdings in coal mines) and mothballed until the energy crisis of the 1970s encouraged the scions of those Victorian power barons to dust off Blythe’s blueprints.
The issue of unsustainable breezes
Since then wind has become a significant contributor to the world’s energy needs, with (at full-capacity) about 30% of the UK’s electricity needs furnished by both onshore and offshore wind. Although we have managed to harness the wind for our own needs, we can’t quite make wind appear when and where we want it to. Although scientists say humankind is generally warming the world’s surface through its activities, we can’t warm one spot and cool another spot at will to encourage a breeze to flow between the two, so we’re still reliant on Aeolus to power our turbines. So when the wind blows we can have electricity, and when it doesn’t, we’re powerless. If only we could use that wind to generate sustainable power that we could use when we needed it.
But hold on, what if you used that wind to power a turbine that would produce something like Hydrogen? Not only would the energy be 100% ‘green’, but provide baseload energy. And that’s precisely what Aquis-listed Hydrogen Future Industries [AQSE:HFI], formerly known as Hydrogen One, the London-based developer of proprietary wind and water-based green hydrogen production systems has set out to do.
Taking the unpredictability out of wind power
The concept is that wind turbines, rather than electricity, are used to produce hydrogen gas directly. This hydrogen can then be stored, and energy can be used when there is no wind. The turbines are hooked-up to electrolyser stacks, which pass the generated electricity through water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen and then the hydrogen is captured and stored. The idea provides the opportunity to produce more fossil-free and predictable energy, which is absolutely crucial if we are to achieve the green transition and energy security.
The Armchair Trader has previously reported on HFI, whose technology in development is a wind-based hydrogen production system combined with electrolyser technologies which aims to generate hydrogen for under USD2/kg. But since we last visited HFI, the company has made strides in the development of its tech, with its Montana tests coming back with positive results, and its one-metre diameter turbine (which is built a bit like a jet engine) showing a 270% increase in energy production over a traditional open-rotor turbine (built like a traditional windmill). The company was also testing its electrolyser in California and its newbuild prototype showed a 97% efficiency improvement compared to older tech.
Listed on Aquis in 2021, the company is also looking to double-down on its environmental credentials by sourcing water contaminated by mineworks and running it through its electrolysers, generating hydrogen at the mine site that will contribute to the plant’s energy needs, and not tapping cleaner sources of water that can be used by humans, flora and fauna. HFI believes it can produce electricity from dewatering mineworks at 12 cents per kilowatt hour.
HFI planning a prototype in Ireland
The company is also moving to install its products operationally, signing a licencing and territory agreement to deploy its technology in Ireland through subsidiary, Hydrogen Future Industries (Ireland), and plans on installing a pilot project to prove its technology’s concept. The deal sees HFI Ireland granted a territory licence of 20 years with HFI receiving a EUR2.25m licence fee and 30% equity holding in HFI Ireland, increasing to 40% upon HFI Ireland attracting funding of EUR1m towards the development of a pilot energy system. HFI Ireland will attempt to commercialise HFI’s technology in Ireland in step with the Irish Government’s National Hydrogen Strategy, hoping to attract some government funding to rollout the hydrogen plants.
The company’s shares were trading on 6th August at 2.125p, down 70% over one-year and down 60% year-to-date. The company has a market capitalisation of GBP1.3m. HFI is clearly making significant strides in developing a technology that could revolutionise the energy sector. However, it is a small company in market cap terms, even for Aquis, and has seen its share price plummet over the past year. Investors will be hoping that the company can translate its technological advancements into commercial success. The journey from prototype to profitable product is often fraught with challenges, and only time will tell if HFI can overcome these hurdles and realise its full potential.
