Californian electrolyser start-up Verdagy has announced plans for a new manufacturing facility in Silicon Valley.
With over 100,000sq. ft. of manufacturing space, Verdagy plans for its automated 20MW electrolyser module manufacturing operations to kick off in Q1 2024 at the new facility.
Expecting to double the total number of its employees by next summer to support its expansion, the company hopes the new site in Newark, California, will serve as the basis for larger scale production facilities in other locations.
Verdagy’s existing Moss Landing facility will remain focused on R&D and commercial pilot plant operations to support its customer needs.
“Our new Silicon Valley manufacturing facility will accelerate the production and cost reduction of our eDynamic® 20MW electrolyser module, which is the basic building block for delivering large gigawatt-scale plants,” said Verdagy CEO, Marty Neese.
The announcement comes after Verdagy last month (August 2023) secured $73m in Series B financing with the backing of Temasek and Shell ventures to launch and commercialise its 20MW electrolyser module.
Read more: Verdagy raises $73m in Series B round to launch 20MW electrolyser module
Aimed at driving down the investment of green hydrogen production, Verdagy’s eDynamic 20MW electrolysers are said to offer low operating costs with flexible operating capabilities using its SmartCells architecture, which allows the large 3m2 cells to operate at higher current densities.
It is hoped the technology will allow Verdagy to achieve the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) goal of reducing the levelised cost of hydrogen to $2/kg by 2026.
Coming in support of the company’s expansion plans, Dee Dee Myres, Senior Advisor to Governor Newson and Director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, said the state was focused on building a renewable hydrogen ecosystem, including electrolyser manufacturing.
“Verdagy’s decision to expand their footprint here reflects California’s unique strength in creating new markets, enabling the creation of clean energy jobs while solving our most existential challenges with technology of the future,” Myres said.
Reducing electrolyser capital and operating expenditures: Verdagy in pursuit of low-cost green hydrogen
Marty Neese © Verdagy
Since its launch in May 2021, Californian start-up, Verdagy has grabbed headlines with its electrolyser technology that aims to dramatically reduce the cost of green hydrogen production, utilising a novel electrochemical cell.
Having spun out of an electrochemical company based in Moss Landing, California, named Chemetry, Verdagy has the legacy of a company that had spent over a decade working on decarbonising industrial chemical activities such as ethylene dichloride and propylene oxide production, utilising large electrochemical cells and membrane-based technologies.
In an exclusive interview with H2 View, Marty Neese, CEO of Verdagy, explained Chemetry took its learnings about hydrogen production as a by-product of its processes to kick off the pure-play green hydrogen electrolyser innovator. “A group of electrochemists, scientists and operations personnel from Chemetry moved onto a different path to become Verdagy,” he added.
In February last year (2022), Verdagy raised $25m through a financing round, with plans to commercialise its eDynamic® technology which promises to deliver scalable and low-cost hydrogen production.
Having launched its three-cell 500kW commercial electrolyser pilot plant at its Moss Landing, California pilot plant, which featured what it said were the “largest” anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in world, Verdagy has now set out to demonstrate the commercial performance of it eDynamic electrolyser and how it could reduce the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) on ground…
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