The company Inocel, which designs high-power fuel cells, will set up a “gigafactory” in Belfort, a 15,000 m2 factory where production should start in September 2024 with 700 long-term jobs, it announced on Wednesday. at a press conference. conference.
Inocel, whose research and development center is located in Grenoble, and hand in hand in particular with the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), will install its large-volume production plant in Belfort in a 15,000 m2 building that has already been built, making it possible to accelerate the phase towards industrialization. The factory should produce its first systems in September 2024. The goal is to reach 30,000 by 2030. A total of 150 jobs are planned by the end of 2024 and 700 by 2030.
Inocel is a young French company in the hydrogen sector, created a year ago by the businessman Mauro Ricci and the adventurer Mike Horn. Design high-power fuel cells: the Inocel Z300 cell, for example, delivers 300 kilowatts (kW) of power, equivalent to the engine power of a 44-tonne truck, contained in a cube 50 centimeters on a side whose weight is of 100 kg. An unbeatable weight-power-volume ratio, which responds to a need “today unsatisfied”, says Jules Billiet, the company’s general manager.
“Make Belfort the capital of hydrogen”
Inocel will thus offer this solution for stationary applications (construction generator, emergency group), heavy transport (trucks, construction machinery, railway, etc.) and maritime transport. The company has confirmed one billion euros in order intentions: “The market has validated our product”, Jules Billiet rejoices.
Mauro Ricci praised “the quality, consistency and coherence of the” hydrogen ecosystem in northern Franche-Comté. “You bring an additional brick to the sector and it is a great brick of French and European sovereignty in terms of hydrogen,” said Marie-Guite Dufay, socialist president of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté regional council. “Our ambition: to make Belfort the hydrogen capital,” added LR Greater Belfort President Damien Meslot.
Northern Franche-Comté has leading players in this sector around production (McPhy), storage (Faurecia) and uses (Alstom).
Source: BFM TV
