Metacon and Peric bring new Chinese stacks to Europe electrolyser market

50MW of new-generation Chinese pressurised alkaline electrolyser stacks have reached the European market through Swedish energy technology company Metacon.

Metacon will deploy the new stacks from Peric Hydrogen Technologies in “ongoing” and “planned” commercial projects under a collaboration with the state-owned Chinese company.

Peric dispatched 10 sets of EU standards-compliant stacks from Lianyungang Port to Metacon in Greece on September 6.

According to Metacon, the “next-generation” stacks provide up to 17% higher operating current density and 13% less cell-plate weight in comparison to Peric’s previous design. They are also billed as cheaper at the stack level.

Peric’s electrolyser systems have previously been combined with Metacon auxiliary equipment to deliver fully packaged systems, including for Elekta Power’s 7.5MW Romanian .

It comes as Chinese electrolyser producers continue to move in on the global market, sparking fears that capitalising on cheap labour and raw material costs could allow China to undercut western technologies.

Germany’s and Norway’s both recently outsourced stack manufacture to China despite questions around the effects of this on the companies’ respective values.

A February report from the World Bank’s Energy Management Assistance Program (ESPMA) estimated China as holding 86% of global alkaline electrolyser manufacturing capacity.

Dr Eric Rüland, Vice-President Sales & Products of Sino-German joint venture, RCT Hydrogen, recently he believes it’s “definitely possible” for its German-made electrolysers to meet made in Europe criteria, while continuing to rely on Chinese components.