Mitsui & Co invests €10mn in Lhyfe to fuel hydrogen growth

Mitsui & Co has made a €10mn investment in Lhyfe which will fuel the renewable green hydrogen company's international expansion.

The Japanese trading and investment conglomerate, which is a member of the Hydrogen Council, is the first international company to invest in Lhyfe.

Mitsui’s investment follows the raising of €66mn by Lhyfe, in 2021, from Andera Partners, Swen Capital, CDC Banque des Territoires and several of its original shareholders. 

Lhyfe has developed the world’s first industrial site to produce renewable green hydrogen using power from wind turbines, which it inaugurated in 2021.

The company is already active in ten countries in Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and Portugal), and has a sales pipeline of over 90 projects, spread across 11 countries and with production start dates between 2022 and 2028.  

Lhyfe and wpd Offshore recently signed an MoU to jointly establish and directly connect a facility for green hydrogen production to wpd's planned offshore wind farm, Storgrundet, in Söderhamn (click here).

Matthieu Guesné, CEO and founder of Lhyfe, welcomed Mitsui as its first international partner. "This partnership further confirms the interest of the market in our renewable green hydrogen. This agreement with Mitsui will give an important boost to our development in strategic markets internationally, to decarbonise transportation and industry quickly and on a massive scale.”

Lhyfe benefited from the support of BNP Paribas, which acted as its financial advisor for the fund raising. Founding member of the Hydrogen Council, BNP Paribas has created a Low Carbon Transition group, a network of experts, dedicated to advising, financing and more generally supporting development of a low-carbon economy.

BNP Paribas works actively to contribute to the establishment of local ecosystems bringing together all players in the hydrogen value chain and sustainably supports its customers in the large-scale development of the sector.

Hiroshi Kakiuchi, Managing Officer of Mitsui, said Lhyfe has developed unique expertise in renewable green hydrogen production, as well as an ability to create ecosystems and a strong vision for the future of the sector. 

Mitsui & Co is actively raising its international profile. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, MIT Power India, it recently invested in a large-scale renewable energy project in India. 

The project will consist of three newly built wind farms (900MW in total) and one solar plus battery storage farm (400MW plus up to 100 MWh) – 1,300 MW plus up to 100 MWh in total capacity – across three states in India, and provide 400 MW electricity to Solar Energy Corporation of India.

It has also has launched a joint feasibility study with PT Pertamina, an Indonesian state-owned integrated energy corporation, on CCUS commercialisation in Indonesia.