Huge Hy Stor US green hydrogen project suddenly cancelled

The American H2 developer has shut the door on a massive deal for over 1GW with Nel

Until very recently, Hy Stor had been working with Norwegian firm Nel on a green hydrogen project to provide Hy Stor’s Mississippi Clean Hydrogen Hub with alkaline models.

That said, this deal has now been cancelled

As a result, Nel, a green hydrogen electrolyzer manufacturer, has now lost out on a huge alkaline model order.  The decision occurred when an H2 startup that calls itself the largest off-grid H2 project in the United States brought the deal with the Norwegian firm to an end at the preliminary supply level. The capacity reservation agreement between Hy Stor and Nel was signed in April 2024.  Had it been allowed to continue, it would have meant that Nel would be providing more than 1 GW of alkaline electrolyzers for Hy Stor’s Mississippi Clean Hydrogen Hub (MCHH), which was already facing a number of delays.

Nel says this cancellation has not impacted its green hydrogen electrolyzer order backlog

Nel recently reported to the Norwegian stock exchange in a filing that stated that the cancellation by Hy Stor will not impact its order backlog, since the capacity reservation agreement it had with the other company had never been counted within its accounting as a confirmed order. According to Nel, it will maintain the non-refundable capacity reservation fee from that agreement. Still, Hy Stor’s cancellation of the agreement has caused attention to be placed on its MCHH program and its status, as it failed to obtain the funding it was seeking from the US government through the $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs strategy, even though it bid $1.2 billion in financial support.

Continuing forward

According to Hy Stor, had long confirmed its intention to plow forward with the MCHH green hydrogen project even without the US government funding it had been seeking. It was in this light that it had signed the agreement with Nel last December. Nel has released only hopeful statements since the announcement. “Of course we would have liked the project to move on,” said its CEO Håkon Volldal. “It might still move on, but it’s delayed, and since it’s delayed, it doesn’t make sense to have a capacity reservation agreement in the short term.”