A consortium of which clean fuel technology company ITM Power plc (LON:ITM) is a part, has won £8.8mln in funding from the Department for Transport.
ITM will receive £4.3mln of the funding to build four new hydrogen refuelling stations and to upgrade five existing hydrogen refuelling stations to increase capacity to support a larger fleet of fuel cell electric vehicles.
READ: Sales and orders strongly ahead at hydrogen specialist ITM Power
"Hydrogen has huge potential, especially for those making longer journeys and clocking up high mileage; that is what makes this project truly exciting,” claimed Roads Minister, Jesse Norman.
“Not only is it demonstrating the technology in action, but it is also developing the refuelling infrastructure needed for the future," Norman added.
Dr Graham Cooley, the chief executive officer of ITM Power, said the project would deliver the largest expansion of the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure ever undertaken in the UK.
“Our partnership with Shell, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai constitutes a highly coordinated roll-out of hydrogen vehicles and refuelling infrastructure," Cooley said.
As well as announcing the government grant, ITM Power issued an operations update in which it said it had £33.3mln of projects under contract, up from £27mln on January 29, and a further £5.5mln (£10.4mln) in the final stages of negotiation.
Since January 29 the company has finalised contracts totalling £6.3mln and increased the total backlog of new projects by £1.5mln.
The company added that, since its update at the end of January, it has made significant progress towards establishing the new factory site.
The factory layout has been finalised; tenders have been received from candidate principal contractors and shortlisted; detailed plans have been submitted to the landlord for approval and heads of terms have been agreed, with the contract expected to be signed by the end of June this year.
“Our contracted order book, at its highest ever, demonstrates a consolidation of a period of high growth. We are also delighted to have finalised heads of terms and received the grant from the city region, showing our growth as being in line with their strategy," Cooley said.