EIT InnoEnergy and Groupe IDEC enter the capital of pHYnix, the European renewable hydrogen production, promotion and distribution company
pHYnix owns Vitale, the first commercial-scale green hydrogen production facility in Spain, under construction, and one of the largest electrolysis projects in Europe, with a capacity of 10 MW. Today, pHYnix is strengthening its position in the European green hydrogen market by bringing in these two new and relevant investors.
With this operation, EIT InnoEnergy, the world’s largest investor in sustainable energy innovations, created in 2010 and backed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), is strengthening its position in the renewable hydrogen value chain. The support is provided by EIT InnoEnergy’s European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Center (EGHAC), which is supported by Breakthrough Energy. The EGHAC focuses on decarbonizing hard to abate industries (steel, fertilizers, chemicals, and heavy mobility) by setting up green hydrogen industrial players as well as supporting relevant projects.
GROUPE IDEC, a major player in all segments of the real estate market (development, promotion, investment, energy, engineering), carries out 700,000 m² of projects each year in France and abroad and has a land bank of nearly 1,000 hectares. The company places the energy transition at the heart of its development strategy by federating a number of innovative start-ups linked to green energy, such as the investment in pHYnix through its subsidiary GROUPE IDEC INVEST Innovation.
Renewable hydrogen producer pHYnix has carried out a capital increase by which it has added EIT InnoEnergy and Groupe IDEC Invest Innovation to its shareholding structure. In addition to the capital increase, EIT InnoEnergy and pHYnix have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement in areas such as building key supply chain partnerships, support with business development and ensuring access to financing.
The President of pHYnix, Jean-Pierre Riche, has valued this capital increase: “the incorporation of EIT InnoEnergy to the pHYnix project is a key step in our growth: beyond its investment commitment, it is a boost to our business plan and corroborates the total alignment with the Roadmap set by the European Union. Groupe IDEC, for its part, will enable pHYnix to support the territorial deployment of renewable hydrogen through sustainable real estate projects and major logistics platforms”.
Jacob Ruiter, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy Benelux and Managing Director of EGHAC, has declared: “The focus on production as well as off-take of green hydrogen fits well in our value chain approach. EGHAC will help de-risk and accelerate the pHYnix initiative and with that help decarbonize heavy transport. We are looking forward to our collaboration and scale the impact we make!”
“We are delighted to be joining the pHYnix venture, an innovative company that is positioning itself as a key player in the mass production of green hydrogen”, said Patrice Lafargue, President of the GROUP IDEC. He also added: “This investment, through our subsidiary GROUPE IDEC INVEST Innovation, is part of our desire to bring together a complete ecosystem to provide our customers with a concrete response to decarbonise their business. We are already actively working on joint projects that will undoubtedly lead to fruitful collaborations on the scale of our clients’ real estate projects or business and logistics parks.”
pHYnix is one of the EGHAC projects that will kick start the uptake of green hydrogen and can be replicated across Europe to increase the impact on greenhouse gas reduction and the creation of jobs.
