For years, the hydrogen industry has focused on lowering fuel cell costs in pursuit of profitability.
French fuel cell and hydrogen generator maker Inocel believes the equation is shifting. While reducing fuel cell costs remains important, CEO Jules Billiet argues that profitability will ultimately depend on securing competitively priced hydrogen and removing the operational barriers that have slowed adoption.
Inocel was founded in 2022 by the team behind engineering consulting and R&D services firm Akka Technologies, where Billiet previously held an operational management position. The company was established to accelerate low-emissions solutions in sectors where batteries alone could not meet customer requirements for autonomy and power output.
Jules Billiet © Inocel
Having raised €64m ($74.4m) in 2024, the company has amassed three sites across France, including a 15,000m2 factory in Belfort, where it aims to establish 90MW of fuel cell generator manufacturing capacity by 2027, with plans to scale up to 3GW eventually.
After securing certification for its 300kW system in November 2025, Inocel has completed seven deployments across construction, events, and industrial applications.
Now in 2026, its primary focus is on commercial stationary power generation deployments, aiming to replace diesel generators in the same segments.
Premium before mass
The immediate opportunity for Inocel lies in what it describes as “premium markets.” Northern European countries, including the UK, Germany, and the Nordics, are introducing stricter emissions regulations that are creating demand for alternatives to diesel.
“It’s a two-step sales acceleration,” Billiet explained, “premium today for players who have limitations in terms of emissions regulation.”
Alone, Inocel estimates this market could offer it tens of millions in turnover over the next two years.
While there are also “premium” opportunities outside of Europe, in regions like Asia, California, and Chile, its next big target is applications beyond mandated emissions reduction.
“The second step in 2027 [will target] clients who are not only looking for decarbonisation, they are just looking for a better solution [that is] competitive in price,” he explained.
This wider stationary temporary power market is worth €40bn ($46.5bn) worldwide, Billiet said. However, it’s where the commercial challenge becomes significantly harder.
While emissions regulations can justify a premium today, widespread adoption will require hydrogen-powered generators to compete directly with diesel economically. Billiet believes that the threshold is already becoming achievable in certain use cases.
“We are competitive with hydrogen between €9 ($10.46) and €11 ($12.79) [per kilogramme delivered],” he said, referring to applications such as construction sites operating generators for around 3,000 hours per year.
End-to-end model
Rather than positioning itself as just an original equipment manufacturer, Inocel is building its strategy around an end-to-end service model. Through a partnership with the engineering, procurement, and construction firm Equans, the company manages hydrogen sourcing, logistics, maintenance, and site integration.
To achieve the €9 to €11 hydrogen prices needed for cost parity, the company is securing hydrogen supply from a network of production points and concentrating deployments within a limited delivery radius.
“We have a circle of 100km around these production points where it’s possible to deliver hydrogen at a competitive price,” he said.
Inocel and Equans have mapped green, grey, and blue hydrogen production facilities across Europe and sought framework agreements with multiple suppliers. According to Billiet, scale is essential to securing competitive pricing.
“If you [commit to one] producer, you can’t get the right price,” he said, “because you need to massify logistics, contracts, and some engagement on volumes.”
But pricing only makes up one part of the challenge. The company’s model is also intended to remove what Billiet describes as the practical barrier that has historically slowed deployment.
“The goal of the offer is very clear: it’s to manage and take care of all the logistics, maintenance, and supply for the client,” Billiet said. “We just need to know the amount of power they need, for how long, and where.”
Billiet argues that many early hydrogen projects placed too much responsibility on end-users, requiring customers to manage fuel supply, safety requirements, site integration and maintenance themselves.
“We need to have the complete logistics included in the offer…we have worked to have a layout and implementation that’s very easy for the customer,” he said.
In practical terms, Inocel says it can deploy its unit and hydrogen storage within a secured site from 150m².
The technology
This model has been built around Inocel’s GEN-Z series generator units. Designed around a 300kW PEM stack, the units offer peak power of 300kVA with an electrical efficiency of 54%. The company has also developed designs for 600kVA and 1.6 VA systems targeting larger power demands.
Billiet admitted that Inocel’s manufacturing costs are not yet competitive with diesel generators, even though the total cost of ownership of its systems can already compete in certain applications. This gets to the crux of one of the sector’s biggest historic challenges: scaling manufacturing without eroding margins.
The CEO said the company has a target of reaching manufacturing competitiveness by 2032, which he believes can be achieved by producing higher volumes and reducing hardware costs.
Belfort factory © Inocel
At its Belfort facility, Inocel manufactures fuel cell stacks, systems, and full generator units. According to Billiet, the company has already achieved substantial cost reductions through design optimisation and manufacturing improvements.
“We have divided the price of the system by four, and we will continue to divide the price of the system by two every three years,” he said.
Future gains are expected to come increasingly from simplifying balance-of-plant components and using operational data to optimise software and system design. Billiet argues that these improvements, combined with automated manufacturing, can eventually deliver capital cost parity with diesel generators.
“We are really working to have capex parity in 2032, not with a crazy view on volume, but with a few thousand units [per year],” Billiet said.
Deploying commercially
The company’s confidence contrasts with the caution seen elsewhere in the hydrogen industry. Last year, Bosch scaled back its solid oxide stationary fuel cell ambitions, citing difficult market conditions and slower-than-expected adoption.
Billiet suggested such decisions reflect the industry’s maturity curve rather than a fundamental weakness in hydrogen technologies. In his view, the sector first needs companies capable of delivering complete solutions before larger OEMs can successfully scale their involvement.
For Inocel, however, profitability is no longer primarily a technology question.
“The hydrogen fuel cell part is self-sufficient,” Billiet said. “Now we need to work to scale up.”
That challenge extends beyond individual companies and into the policy arena. Billiet argued that improving access to competitively priced hydrogen would be more valuable for accelerating deployments than additional company-level support measures.
