Hydrogen power generation technology company AFC Energy announced the strengthening of its partnership with ABB in the area of high-power ‘e-mobility’ charging on Tuesday, through execution of its first sale and development agreement, in parallel with a subscription for new warrants in the company.
The AIM-traded firm said ABB was ordering its first AFC Energy ‘S Series’ fuel cell system for high power charging, with a total contract value of £4m.
It said proceeds of the £4m order would be paid over a combination of system deployment milestones, with the first upfront payment of £2m invoiced immediately.
The agreement fast tracked AFC’s high-energy dense S Series anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology, with delivery now expected ahead of schedule.
AFC said the final system procured by ABB would have nameplate capacity of 200kW, and be capable of hydrogen and ammonia fuelling.
The 200kW system would be engineered within a 10 foot shipping container, excluding the ammonia cracker, which the board said illustrated its “market-leading” energy density when it comes to alkaline fuel cell technology.
It noted that the order followed the successful integration trials of AFC’s ‘L Series’ fuel cell technology with ABB’s energy storage and high-power electric vehicle charging platforms over the summer of 2021.
A £4m subscription by way of warrants, at an exercise price of 58.8p per share, gave ABB the option to increase its shareholding in AFC Energy.
The firm said delivery of the S Series 200kW system was scheduled for early 2023 under the contract, adding that both ABB and AFC were engaging prospective customers of the new S Series system, highlighting the “customer pull” for the fuel flexible, high energy dense system’s performance.
“We are delighted to receive our first S Series fuel cell system order from ABB, following 12 months of high-quality collaborative work between our two companies,” said chief executive officer Adam Bond.
“ABB’s £4m order enables AFC Energy to deliver a 200kW S Series charging system in early 2023, which is a material acceleration when set against our previous target of delivering a 10kW stack in the same period.”
Bond said AFC Energy was “committed to supporting” ABB in delivering “sustainable e-mobility infrastructure” to the growing global fleet of electric vehicles.
“We believe our new S Series fuel cell platform will become the ‘go-to’ high performance fuel cell technology, capturing multiple fuelling strategies, whilst affording best-in-class AEM power density and efficiency.”
At 1129 GMT, shares in AFC Energy were up 1.22% at 59.31p.
