SIAD Group Opens Integrated Green Hydrogen Plant in Southern Italy

Italian industrial gas company SIAD Group has commissioned a 2 MW proton exchange membrane electrolyzer at its IGAT facility in Pignataro Maggiore, near Caserta in southern Italy, creating what the company says is a fully integrated renewable hydrogen production site.

The electrolyzer runs exclusively on electricity from a 2.37 MW solar array built on the same premises, backed by a 1 MW battery system. Producing all energy and converting it to hydrogen within a single industrial compound eliminates reliance on the grid for the core process. The hydrogen will be compressed to 500 bar for direct delivery to industrial buyers.

Total project cost exceeded €12 million, with €8 million funded through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The primary goal is to decarbonize industrial applications in which direct electrification is technically difficult — a segment seen as among the harder problems in the energy transition.

The Italian launch arrives alongside a flurry of hydrogen-related activity across Europe and beyond. Spain has decided to accelerate permitting for the first three sections of Enagás’s planned national renewable hydrogen grid, while Germany has opened a third competitive call for proposals under its international hydrogen project funding program. Meanwhile, researchers at Oregon State University have published work on metal-organic frameworks as catalysts for producing hydrogen directly from water using light.

Source: PV Magazine