ITM Power Secures £86.5m for Sheffield Gigawatt Factory, Shares Consolidate After Stellar Year-to-Date Rally

UK government confirms £46.5M grant for ITM Power's Chronos stack line; combined with £40M from Great British Energy, the 1GW facility automates production to cut costs and boost green hydrogen.

Sheffield has long been synonymous with steel. ITM Power chief executive Dennis Schulz is betting it will become just as closely associated with hydrogen. On 9 July 2026, his company locked in a critical piece of that vision: the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) formally confirmed a £46.5 million grant to support the construction of a new electrolyser stack manufacturing line.

The award, first flagged in April, is now legally binding. Together with a separate £40 million injection from state-owned energy group Great British Energy, ITM Power has assembled an £86.5 million funding package to ramp up production of its next-generation “Chronos” stacks. The new line, to be housed at the company’s existing Sheffield facility, targets an annual capacity of one gigawatt — enough to supply electrolysers for large-scale green hydrogen projects both at home and abroad.

Chronos has been in development for more than two years and represents a step change in ITM Power’s manufacturing approach. Where the earlier Trident line relied on semi-manual processes, Chronos is built around full automation: catalyst-coated membrane production, electrode welding, specialised coating techniques and automated stack assembly. The company says the design will slash costs while improving energy efficiency, a combination that is crucial if green hydrogen is to compete on price with grey hydrogen from fossil fuels.

“This formal commitment from the government and Great British Energy gives us the financial bedrock to turn the Chronos line into reality,” Schulz said in a statement. He added that the investment strengthens ITM Power’s position as “the natural partner” for domestic hydrogen projects, particularly as the UK pushes to meet its net-zero targets.

Yet the market’s reaction has been muted, at least in the near term. ITM Power’s London-listed shares closed at €1.35 on Friday, down 1.95% on the day and 8.51% lower than the previous week’s close. The stock remains 47.44% below its 52-week high of €2.58, reached at the end of May.

Zoom out, however, and the trajectory looks altogether different. Since the start of 2026, the shares have surged 86.77%, and over the past twelve months they are up 36.73%. The February trough of €0.65 — a 52-week low — now sits 109.10% below the current price. That wild swing underscores the stock’s extreme volatility: the 30-day annualised reading stands at 106.37%.

Technically, the shares are in a consolidation phase. They trade 21.20% below their 50-day moving average of €1.72, but 26.31% above the 200-day moving average of €1.07. The relative strength index of 42 suggests neither overbought nor oversold conditions — more a pause for breath after the blistering rally that carried the stock from its February nadir to the May peak.

With a market capitalisation of roughly €933 million, ITM Power remains a high-beta play on the hydrogen theme. The locked-in funding removes one layer of execution risk: the Chronos line is fully financed and can proceed without the constant need to raise fresh capital. But the share price will ultimately be dictated by how quickly the factory can move from construction to serial production — and whether the promised cost and efficiency gains materialise on the shop floor.