Hydrogen update: HydrogenOne reports steady growth and Oracle Power raises £500K for 1.2 GW hybrid project in Pakistan
Soaring oil and gas prices, coupled with the global transition to net-zero carbon, have led to a surge of development in hydrogen, seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels where other green technologies may struggle. Our coverage of this growing sector continues today with news from 2 companies: HydrogenOne Capital Growth and Oracle Energy.
HydrogenOne Capital Growth
( ) released a quarterly update this morning for the period ended 30 June 2022 (Q2 2022). The company is the LSE's first investment fund dedicated to clean hydrogen.
The NAV of HydrogenOne's private assets increased 3% in the quarter, reflecting higher valuations in multiple positions across its portfolio. The company's daily unaudited NAV per share was 95.29p on 3 August, an increase of 2.2%
The company's cash reserves stood at £29.9m, a £3.5m decrease from the previous quarter, due to 2 new investments made in the period worth £25.6m. That capital deployment was partially offset by the £21.5m in proceeds raised in the company's oversubscribed placing, completed in April.
The two new private investments were in Elcogen, a solid oxide fuel cell and electrolysis company worth £20.5m, and German project developer HH2E, worth £5.1m. These investments brought HydrogenOne's total number of private portfolio positions to eight. In total, the company has invested £95m in low-carbon growth, with a further £500m+ pipeline of opportunities.
Some highlights from HydrogenOne's other private investments: Sunfire received new investments from Amazon and funding from the European Commission for its electrolyser developments. HH2E announced a 6,000 tonnes/year clean H2 project in conjunction with MET Group in Germany. Bramble Energy was awarded UK Government funding for its fuel cell technology. Cranfield Aerospace announced a supply agreement for 10 H2-fuelled planes. And NanoSUN was awarded £450K by the UK Government to expand its H2 refuelling infrastructure.
Dr JJ Traynor of HydrogenOne was a guest on the Vox Markets podcast in July and spoke with Justin Waite regarding the company's investment strategy. Click here for that conversation.
Oracle Power
Another hydrogen company in the news lately has been ( ) . Shares in the company rose sharply over the last 2 days as it revealed it had received a green light from a Pakistani regulator regarding a 1.2 GW renewables hybrid power project in the country.
The project will see a 400 MW electrolyser facility powered by a 1.2 GW renewables hybrid power plant. The plant would be able to produce up to 55,000 tonnes of green hydrogen pa at full capacity, the company said. The approval was subject to the provision of a US$600K performance guarantee by Oracle.
Unfortunately, shares erased most of their gains after the company announced today it had raised £500K via discounted shares to fund work on the project. Oracle said it had issued 181.8m new shares at a price of 0.275p, representing a 26% discount to yesterday's closing price of 38p.
Naheed Memon, CEO of Oracle, commented: "We continue to make great advancements for our green hydrogen strategy in Pakistan and today's fundraise will enable us to continue on this upward trajectory. The majority of the funds raised will be used to support the green hydrogen initiative through Oracle Energy Limited, whilst also providing us with sufficient working capital to develop the other projects in Oracle's portfolio."
Shares in Oracle remain up 4.9% in the last 5 days.
For more news from the hydrogen sector, see our Hydrogen Roundup from 29 June, and recent news from Atome Energy and Johnson Matthey. Atome Energy was spun off from President Energy, which discussed its own green initiatives recently.
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