TECO 2030’s financial woes lead to bankruptcy
The board's unanimous decision stems from the lack of "realistic opportunities to raise sufficient capital to continue operations," Norwegian tech firm TECO 2030 said.
PHOTO: Inside TECO 2030's hydrogen-based fuel cell production facility in Narvik, Norway. TECO 2030
This decision came after the bankruptcy filing of its subsidiary, TECO 2030 Innovation Center AS, which had direct implications for the parent company.
“The potential bankruptcy of the Innovation Center could have significant repercussions for the Company, particularly due to a parent company guarantee capped at NOK 10 million ($900,000), covering rental payments under the Innovation Center's property lease agreement in Narvik,” the company had earlier explained.
The Oslo-listed company aimed to pioneer hydrogen-based fuel cells for ships. Its fuel cell stack, built with proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology, had a 400-kilowatt output.
Its order portfolio included retrofitting the fuel cell stack onto Samskip’s LNG vessel in Rotterdam and six ammonia-powered ships owned by Pherousa Green Shipping, which planned to use onboard ammonia cracking to produce hydrogen.
However, in August, TECO 2030 announced a strategic pivot. It planned to move away from manufacturing fuel cells in Norway to “offering licensing agreements to international partners”, focusing on markets in the US, India and Southeast Asia. The company also broadened its target applications beyond marine to include heavy-duty vehicles, data centres, mining and trucking.
TECO 2030 attributed its shift to high production costs, regulatory delays and limited interest from public and private financiers in Norway.
The company's stock suffered an 88% decline over the past year, exacerbating its financial woes and reflecting the challenges it faced in securing investor confidence.
“We have tried to raise money like everyone else in the green shift, but people around us are going bankrupt everywhere, both in Norway and Europe,” chief executive Tore Enger told Norwegian media outlet E24. “The authorities' interest in helping a little is no longer there. There is nothing more we can do. We have held hundreds of presentations in Europe in the past year.”
Hydrogen’s limited maritime application
Although hydrogen produced from renewable energy is a zero-emission fuel, its adoption in shipping faces limited interest due to technological constraints that currently make it unsuitable as a bunker fuel for ocean-going vessels.
This is because the currently available PEM fuel cells require constant supply of hydrogen to generate power. High cost and challenges associated with storing large quantities of hydrogen onboard vessels makes it expensive and impractical for long-distance voyages.
Larger vessels will need high-efficiency fuel cells for longer voyages, such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Since SOFC technology in marine applications is still at a nascent stage, it may take some time before ocean-going vessels can fully transition to hydrogen propulsion.
A recent MMMCZCS study has found that even after fuel cells are commercially deployed in a few years, they may not replace marine combustion engines due to high retail and replacement costs. It projects SOFCs to cost around $5,500 per kilowatt (kW) and PEM fuel cells to cost around $4,000/kW by 2025. They can instead be used to generate auxiliary power to help vessels attain maximum energy efficiency and emission reductions, it suggests.
By Konica Bhatt
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