French green hydrogen producer Lhyfe has officially inaugurated its biggest green hydrogen plant yet, the 10MW Schwäbisch Gmünd facility in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany.

The plant is also the first at industrial scale the company has opened outside France, and takes its total operational capacity to 21MW.

Schwäbisch Gmünd is able to produce around four tonnes of green hydrogen certified as a renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO) per day, equivalent to around 1,460 per year if operated at full capacity all year round.

Renewable electricity is secured via a power-purchase agreement from suppliers in Germany, including from Portuguese-headquartered firm EDP.

Green hydrogen produced at the plant is destined for use in the heavy-duty trucking market and industrial customers, delivered by road in Lhyfe’s specialist fleet of trucks.

In September last year, the French company signed a deal with German hydrogen refuelling station operator H2 Mobility to supply 1,200 tonnes of RFNBO-certified hydrogen over five years from Schwäbisch Gmünd — equivalent to around 16% of the plant’s total capacity.

H2 Mobility has since said that it will close around 22 of its hydrogen refuelling stations in Germany, however these stations were mostly targeting passenger vehicles, rather than heavy-duty trucks and buses.

Lhyfe also noted today that it already has a network of customers in place in Baden-Württemberg, having been delivering volumes to Germany since 2023.

Its also has two French green hydrogen projects with capacities of 5MW each, and the company reported last month that it carried out twice as many deliveries of hydrogen to its customers as it did in the first half of last year to current customers in the mobility and industry sector across France, Sweden and Germany.

The Schwäbisch Gmünd project was granted €2.1m ($2.4m) by the state of Baden-Württemberg and €4.3m from the EU.

“With our three units in operation and some of the most advanced logistics in Europe, we have demonstrated our operational capabilities,” said Luc Graré, head of central and eastern Europe at Lhyfe.

“We are now ready to open a new chapter in Lhyfe’s history in Germany, to deliver ever-increasing volumes and, in the long term, to develop on-site production units to meet the most significant needs, similar to the projects we are already carrying out in several European countries.”