ITM Power: A Rival’s £300m Landgrab and a Highland Hydrogen Bet Redraw the UK Map

Ballard Power Systems acquires GeoPura for £301m, intensifying competition for ITM Power as its stock drops 30% in a month amid a hydrogen market shake-up.

The UK hydrogen sector is cleaving in two. On one side, a deep-pocketed Canadian entrant is swallowing up a local hydrogen specialist, redrawing the competitive landscape for domestic electrolyser makers. On the other, ITM Power is digging in with a partnership that turns a government-backed Scottish project into a test of its new business model. The stock, meanwhile, is caught in the crossfire.

Ballard Power Systems has struck a deal worth around £301m to acquire GeoPura, a British firm that already counts Disney and the UK Ministry of Defence among its customers. The Canadian group will pay £275m upfront, split between cash and its own shares. Management expects the integration to deliver annual cost savings of $25m by 2028. For ITM Power, the move lands a well-funded competitor squarely on its home turf, complicating a market that had already been growing more crowded.

The pressure is not just strategic. Sentiment across the hydrogen space has soured sharply. Shares in peer Ceres Power tumbled almost 9% on Tuesday, reflecting mounting investor scepticism about the pace of adoption. ITM Power felt the chill acutely: the stock closed that session at €1.46, according to one report, while another source pegged the close at €1.48, representing a 5.5% daily decline. Over the past month the share price has shed roughly 30%, slipping below the 50-day moving average of €1.74. Still, the year-to-date advance stands at over 100%, and the current price is roughly 43% below the 52-week high of €2.58 set in late May.

Yet amid the gloom, ITM Power is advancing a concrete project that could help shift the narrative. The company has teamed up with Protium Green Solutions to develop industrial green hydrogen plants in the UK, starting with the Cromarty Hydrogen Project in the Scottish Highlands. The site will house 15 MW of electrolysis capacity, capable of producing around seven tonnes of green hydrogen daily for industrial customers in an area without access to the national gas grid. Protium has taken over the development and will handle power supply, permitting and infrastructure, while ITM Power supplies its proton-exchange-membrane electrolysers. A final investment decision is scheduled for December 2026, and Phase 1 is expected to create about 30 local jobs.

The partnership marks a deliberate strategic pivot. ITM Power CEO Dennis Schulz has been steering the company away from speculative capacity expansion and towards repeatable revenue streams built with developers and infrastructure operators. Protium CEO Christopher Jackson frames the collaboration as a marriage of two British hydrogen outfits focused on reliability and scalability, combining Protium's project-finance expertise with ITM Power's technology. The project already has support from the first round of UK hydrogen allocation, giving it a financial footing before any electrolysers are installed.

Broader policy tailwinds remain intact. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband recently announced investment commitments totalling £100bn for green infrastructure across the country. Separately, Heriot-Watt University and Schneider Electric are developing digital twins for electrolysis plant — the very technology at the core of ITM Power's business. These initiatives underscore the government's ambition to electrify the economy, but they have yet to translate into firm orders.

For ITM Power, the second half of 2026 is shaping up as a decisive juncture. The Cromarty investment decision will test whether the partnership model can produce more than a single project. At the same time, the £100bn in government pledges must start flowing into purchase orders for domestic electrolyser manufacturers if the sector is to justify the rally that ITM Power’s shares have already delivered. With Ballard now camped on its doorstep and investors demanding results, the company’s response will be measured in megawatts and milestones.