Speedy plans hydrogen generator hire joint venture

2 August 2023

Speedy Hire is to launch a joint venture (JV) hire business with AFC Energy, a specialist supplier of hydrogen fuel cell technology for power generation.

The collaboration will take the form initially of AFC Energy providing Speedy with its H-Power Tower Generators on a re-hire basis. 

As reported previously on the blog, the product has been trialled by HS2 contractors to charge battery powered construction plant on site, pictured below.  

Speedy and AFC Energy intend to form a 50/50 JV to provide a package of hire and service support, together with maintenance, technical advice, site preparation and fuelling. 

The equipment would be available for hire exclusively from the JV through Speedy for an initial three-year period.

Once established, the JV would initially purchase 30kW H-Power Generators from AFC Energy for approximately £2 million, with the first units expected to be available later this year. 

The companies expect demand to grow subsequently in line with the anticipated demand for zero-emission equipment in the UK construction and temporary power market.

Dan Evans, Speedy’s Chief Executive, Speedy, said: “We are pleased to announce our proposed collaboration with hydrogen experts AFC Energy to deliver scalable, modular zero emission power generators to the UK market and further deliver on our ambitious targets in our Velocity sustainable growth strategy." 

Adam Bond, Chief Executive at AFC Energy, added: "Our collaboration with Speedy builds on the successful H-Power Tower launch last year and subsequent field-based deployments, many of whom are customers of Speedy, making our proposed collaboration all the more relevant." 

AFC Energy’s fuel cell technology is currently used in electric vehicle chargers, off-grid decentralised power systems for construction and temporary power, with emerging opportunities across maritime, data centres and rail.