ITM Power Green Hydrogen Partnerships 2025: Securing Megawatt-Scale Projects and Leveraging AI

ITM Power’s Commercial Scale-Up: From Legacy Contracts to Profitable Megawatt Projects

ITM Power has fundamentally shifted its commercial strategy from developing bespoke, often unprofitable, technology to delivering standardized, commercially viable green hydrogen projects at a multi-hundred-megawatt scale.

• Between 2021 and 2024, the company’s focus was on scaling manufacturing with the 1 GW Bessemer Park facility and securing early-stage, large-scale contracts like the 100 MW REFHYNE II project with Shell. This period was marked by significant financial losses and operational challenges, including product delays and an exit from the hydrogen refueling station market, which led to a major strategic reset.
• Starting in 2025, ITM Power demonstrated a clear pivot to profitable, standardized products, reflected in its financial metrics and project pipeline. The company secured a record £145.1 million order backlog for Fiscal Year 2025, with 60% derived from profitable new contracts, a sharp contrast to the legacy agreements of prior years.
• This new commercial focus is validated by a series of major agreements in 2025, including a landmark 710 MW technology partnership with Stablegrid Group for grid-balancing in Germany and a 150 MW capacity reservation from utility giant RWE. These projects utilize standardized modules like the NEPTUNE V and POSEIDON, demonstrating market adoption across high-value sectors like grid services, industrial decarbonization, and utility-scale production.

ITM Power Investment Analysis

Table: ITM Power Strategic Capital and Investment Timeline

ITM Power’s Strategic Partnership Network: Building a Global Hydrogen Ecosystem

Table: ITM Power Key Strategic Partnerships (2021-2025)

ITM Power’s Geographic Footprint: Dominating Germany and Expanding Globally

ITM Power has decisively shifted its geographic focus from a UK-centric base to establishing commercial dominance in Germany, which now serves as the anchor for its European growth and a launchpad for global expansion.

• Between 2021 and 2024, ITM Power‘s activities were heavily concentrated in the UK, with the establishment of its 1 GW Sheffield Gigafactory and collaborations on projects like Gigastack in Humberside. Early international moves were made in Germany through the REFHYNE I project and partnerships with Linde.
• The period from 2025 to today marks Germany as ITM Power‘s primary commercial market. This is evidenced by the massive 710 MW Stablegrid deal, the 150 MW RWE agreement, the 100 MW REFHYNE 2 contract with Shell, and the creation of its German build-own-operate subsidiary, Hydropulse GmbH.
• Beyond Germany, ITM Power is executing a targeted global expansion. The UK remains a key market with projects for MorGen Energy and Octopus Energy. New market entries include a significant 20 MW project in Norway, partnerships in Spain and Finland via ABO Energy, and a major step into the Asia-Pacific with a selection for a 300 MW+ project.

ITM Power’s Technology Status: Validated at Commercial Scale with a Path to AI Optimization

ITM Power‘s PEM electrolyzer technology has successfully transitioned from a developmental stage with operational issues to a mature, standardized, and commercially validated platform ready for mass deployment.

• The 2021 to 2024 period was defined by overcoming production challenges and product inconsistencies that led to delivery delays and financial write-downs. While the 1 GW Bessemer Park factory was a significant achievement, the company struggled with manufacturing discipline, leading to a major strategic overhaul.
• In 2025, the technology’s maturity was proven by a critical operational metric: the factory acceptance test (FAT) first-time-pass rate for electrolyzer stacks surged from below 50% to a consistent 98-99%. This signals a dramatic improvement in manufacturing quality and product reliability.
• The company launched a portfolio of standardized, modular products, including the NEPTUNE V, POSEIDON, and the newly announced ALPHA 50. The ALPHA 50 is a 50 MW plant priced at a transparent €50 million, designed to compete directly on cost with Chinese alkaline machines in Europe.
• The next stage of maturity is integrating AI to enhance operational value. While ITM has not detailed its internal AI projects, the industry is moving quickly. Competitors like Honeywell have launched AI optimization software, and research backed by Plug Power is using AI to reduce iridium catalyst use by 90%, indicating the future direction for PEM technology.

SWOT Analysis: ITM Power’s Strategic Position from 2021 to 2025

Table: SWOT Analysis of ITM Power’s Commercial and Strategic Evolution

ITM Power’s Future Outlook: Integrating AI to Dominate the Energy Solutions Market

ITM Power‘s next critical step is to evolve from a hardware manufacturer into an integrated energy solutions provider by embedding AI-driven intelligence into its systems, which is essential for capturing the highest-value segments of the hydrogen economy.

• The company’s future value proposition is signaled by the 710 MW Stablegrid project. Success in this grid-balancing application is not possible without sophisticated AI to manage real-time energy arbitrage, turning electrolyzers into revenue-generating grid assets.
• The new Hydropulse GmbH subsidiary, which offers “green hydrogen as a service,” becomes significantly more powerful when bundled with AI-powered optimization. This allows ITM to guarantee a lower levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for customers, creating a stronger competitive moat than hardware cost alone.
• While ITM has focused on its operational turnaround, the broader industry is not waiting. With companies like Honeywell and Envision already deploying AI to optimize hydrogen plants, ITM must either build or partner to acquire these capabilities to avoid being relegated to a commoditized hardware supplier.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the major shift in ITM Power’s strategy between 2021 and 2025?
ITM Power shifted its strategy from developing bespoke, often unprofitable, technology to delivering standardized, commercially viable green hydrogen projects at a multi-hundred-megawatt scale. This pivot, which began in 2025, is demonstrated by securing profitable contracts that make up 60% of its £145.1 million order backlog for Fiscal Year 2025, a stark contrast to the legacy agreements of previous years.

How has ITM Power proven the reliability of its technology in 2025?
The company dramatically improved its manufacturing quality and product reliability, evidenced by the first-time-pass rate for its electrolyzer stack factory acceptance tests (FAT) soaring from below 50% to a consistent 98-99%. This operational excellence validates the maturity of its standardized products like the NEPTUNE V and POSEIDON.

What is the significance of the 710 MW Stablegrid partnership?
The partnership with Stablegrid Group is ITM Power’s largest commitment to date. It is strategically significant because it positions ITM’s PEM electrolyzer technology in the high-value grid-balancing market in Germany, demonstrating that its systems can be used as revenue-generating assets for grid stabilization services.

How is ITM Power competing with lower-cost electrolyzer manufacturers?
ITM Power is directly addressing price competition, particularly from Chinese alkaline manufacturers, by launching the ALPHA 50. This is a standardized 50 MW plant priced transparently at €50 million, designed specifically to be cost-competitive in the European market.

What role is AI expected to play in ITM Power’s future?
AI is positioned as the next critical step for ITM Power to evolve from a hardware supplier into an integrated energy solutions provider. By embedding AI, ITM can enhance the value of its systems, particularly for complex applications like grid balancing (as with the Stablegrid project) and for its ‘hydrogen-as-a-service’ subsidiary, Hydropulse, by guaranteeing a lower levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) for its customers.