Lhyfe, the Little Thumb from Nantes who dreams of being a European champion – L’Express

Since 2017, the forty-year-old with a slender figure, former director at CEA Tech in Nantes, has set out to “ensure a better tomorrow thanks to green and renewable hydrogen”, which he wants to produce and distribute to decarbonize industry and transport. The manufacture of hydrogen by steam reforming of fossil fuels, very little for Matthieu Guesné and his 192 employees. At Lhyfe, hydrogen will be produced by electrolysis of water in sites installed at the foot of wind turbines or not.

In a Europe in a hurry to reduce its CO2 emissions and still shaken by the spotlight on its dependence on Russian gas, the idea is arousing interest. Especially since the REPowerEU plan has set the objective of producing 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen on European soil by 2030. Enough to give wings to Lhyfe, which dreams of being champion of the Old Continent. “We will be the leader in green hydrogen in Europe in 2035. It’s always a Tom Thumb who shakes up the market,” promises Matthieu Guesné with a smile.

Thanks to a generous package of subsidies – 67 million euros collected at the end of September – and the capital increase made possible by its IPO, the young company has set itself the mission of building 3 gigawatts of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030. In doing so, it would multiply its turnover by more than 300 – 600,000 euros in 2022. A colossal leap: this capacity is the one that heavy goods vehicles are targeting like EDF and Air Liquide… Except that these giants want to achieve this by using renewable energies and nuclear energy indiscriminately, even if it means that their hydrogen is more yellow than green.

The bet seems all the more daring as Lhyfe currently only has one operational site. To find it, you have to go to the heart of the Vendée marshes of Bouin, near a small wind farm battered by the winds. This is where the company operated its first factory. His capacity ? 2 megawatts, very far from the 2030 objective… But the mountain of projects on which Lhyfe is sitting gives substance to its ambitions. In its pipes, the equivalent of 10 gigawatts of capacity. And the portfolio continues to fill up, notably driven by demand across the Rhine.

“Germany must represent 60% of Lhyfe’s expected capacities in 2026. It is their priority area in the short term, ahead of France (25%), because things are moving faster there from an administrative point of view, and that the country’s objectives are clear and funded, explains Nicolas Royot, analyst at Portzamparc. But it is in the Scandinavian countries that the company has the largest projects, due to strong local needs in the industry, to decarbonize steel for example.”

Internally, Matthieu Guesné puts forward another reason for the development of Lhyfe outside France. “Our teams are growing much faster in countries that are relying heavily on renewables. Northern countries, like Norway with hydroelectricity, already have cheap, green energy: they risk grabbing everything. In France, we will arrive to grow when the targets in renewables are reached”, estimates the affable leader, in reference to the repeated difficulties of France in achieving its objectives in wind and solar power.

In the meantime, on the German side, Lhyfe is working with Deutsche Bahn to provide it with enough power to power the hydrogen trains that it will test from 2024. In the suburbs of Nuremberg, the automotive supplier Schaeffler will decarbonize some of its processes with hydrogen green made in Lhyfe, the rest being intended, ultimately, for communities and service stations. “Lhyfe contacted us two years ago. Their approach, which consists of bringing hydrogen to customers, convinced us,” relates Andreas Schick, COO of Schaeffler. In Spain, where green hydrogen fever is gradually gaining ground, it is the Frenchman’s ultimate project that interests the energy company Capital Energy. Namely the production of hydrogen at sea.

Off the coast of Le Croisic (Loire-Atlantique), Lhyfe has already deployed a canary yellow pilot platform. Mounted on floats and connected to a small turbine, it is capable of producing 400 kilos of precious gas per day. Galvanized by what it presents as a “world first”, the company wants to ramp up its offshore business with a 10 megawatt site in the North Sea from 2026. Another major gamble. “Beyond the technical aspect, we can wonder if the future holds dozens of floating wind turbines dedicated to the production of hydrogen, asks Cédric Philibert, associate researcher at Ifri. What we need first is for them to produce electricity.”

At sea and on land, an obstacle course awaits Lhyfe to scale up and reduce the cost of its green hydrogen. But trust reigns – at least in the speeches. “For mobility, we are already at the same price, or even cheaper than gray hydrogen [NDLR : produit à partir de gaz naturel]. In the case of hydrogen intended to decarbonize steel and chemicals, we will be competitive around 2028, when manufacturers will begin to massively switch to this solution”, assures Matthieu Guesné, without providing figures. Provided that Lhyfe manages to find a place in a market where uses remain fluid. If a consensus is emerging around the need to use hydrogen to decarbonize certain sectors of industry, its value in land transport remains subject to discussion.

Without forgetting the increasingly fierce competition. Little by little, two strategies for producing renewable hydrogen are emerging: the one defended by the French SME, which consists of producing as close as possible to the markets, and another consisting of importing gas from countries conducive to the massive deployment of renewable energies. Thanks to their immense potential in wind or solar power, Chile, Namibia, Australia and Canada are all countries very favorable to this second path. The latter has also formed an alliance with Germany in order to deploy a transatlantic supply chain. The transport of hydrogen, in gaseous or liquid form, certainly remains a major thorn in the side of supporters of this strategy. However, the delivery of semi-processed products – such as green ammonia, essential for the production of fertilizers – could open up attractive prospects for them, considers Cédric Philibert. It’s up to Lhyfe to undeceive them.