ITM Powers Up with £86.5m Funding Package for Sheffield Gigawatt Electrolyser Plant

ITM Power wins £46.5M UK grant plus £40M equity injection to build automated Chronos electrolyser line in Sheffield, aiming to revive city as hydrogen hub with 400 jobs.

Sheffield, a city built on steel, is being repositioned as a cornerstone of Britain’s hydrogen economy after ITM Power finally secured a £46.5m government grant that had been stuck in competition-law limbo for months. The award, confirmed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), comes alongside a £40m equity injection from Great British Energy, giving the clean-tech company a combined £86.5m war chest to build a fully automated production line for its Chronos electrolyser.

The new facility, housed within ITM Power’s existing site in Sheffield, will boost annual manufacturing capacity to one gigawatt and is expected to create around 400 jobs. Chief executive Dennis Schulz, who has previously called the project a “decisive step,” now wants the city to become as famous for hydrogen as it once was for steel — a vision shared by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who framed the investment squarely around industrial jobs and domestic value creation.

The long delay was driven by a state-aid review by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which held up the subsidy while the Treasury pressed for deeper cuts. Chancellor Rachel Reeves had warned that DESNZ and the transport ministry would need to find £2bn in additional savings, with £400m coming from financial transactions alone. That backdrop stirred anxiety that the Chronos funding might be axed entirely, making the formal green light all the more welcome for ITM Power and its shareholders.

Markets responded with an immediate surge: in London, shares shot up 9.2% at the opening bell. By the close on the German trading floor, the stock stood at €1.37, while another report recorded a finish of €1.40, representing a 2.79% gain for the session. The day’s muted close compared with the intraday spike suggests that some of the euphoria tempered as investors weighed the execution hurdles still ahead.

Volatility remains a defining feature of the stock. Annualised 30-day volatility hovers above 107%, a figure that captures the extreme swings of recent months. Year to date, the shares have climbed roughly 93% according to one calculation, with another source putting the gain at 89%. Over the past twelve months, the advance stands at around 37.5%. Yet the current price is still 45.7% below the 52-week high of €2.58 touched in late May, and it also trails the 50-day moving average of €1.73 by about 19%. Crucially, it remains 30.8% above the 200-day average of €1.07, signalling a medium-term upward trend despite the recent pullback.

With the subsidy uncertainty resolved, attention now turns to execution. The automated Chronos line is scheduled to begin operations in 2028, and ITM Power must convert its order book into profitable production. The next major checkpoint for investors will be the annual report, expected in the summer, which should offer clues on the pace of cash burn and how the company intends to deliver on its cost and efficiency promises. For now, the political and financial backing is locked in — the hard part of making hydrogen at scale lies ahead.