Technip Energies, a French energy engineering and services company, and Belgium’s John Cockerill, an electrolyser specialist, announced Thursday the creation of a joint venture, Rely, which aims to become a “single source” of “competitive” green hydrogen solutions.
Based in Belgium, Rely will be 60% owned by Technip Energies and 40% by John Cockerill. The company is aiming for international deployment and a turnover of more than one billion euros by 2030. “We can debate the speed of hydrogen development, but we can’t debate so much the need for hydrogen (…) to eventually enable the decarbonization of many industries, and in particular our energy industry and other heavy industries,” Arnaud Pieton, CEO of Technip Energies, told reporters. Rely will specialize in integrated solutions for the green hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives markets (Power-to-X).
Power-to-X Technologies
Power-to-X technologies refer to the conversion of renewable electricity, which is intermittent by nature, into another storable energy carrier (green hydrogen molecule, green ammonia or other sustainable fuels). “The launch of Rely aims to build the bridge between the electron and the molecule,” summarized Arnaud Pieton. The joint venture will draw on Technip Energies’ “60 years of experience” in services and engineering for the energy industry (LNG, hydrogen) and on the “expertise” of John Cockerill, which has “more than 20% of the electrolyser market”, according to their joint statement. “These are promising markets with more than 200 billion euros of investment announced by 2030,” Pieton stressed.
But in this “nascent” market, there is a “need to organize and consolidate around new players that can accelerate its development. “For this market to take off, we need to break down technological and cost barriers (…) we need to accelerate innovation and develop integrated solutions to make this molecule profitable in the long term,” insisted Mr. Pieton. “With Rely, we really hope to drive a new dynamic in the green hydrogen market and accelerate the energy transition on a global level in a very important way,” said François Michel, managing director of John Cockerill. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023.
