Intelligent Energy Holdings announced that IECHP (UK and Eire) Ltd., a joint venture company formed in partnership with utility Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE.L) has met with all mutually agreed milestones, triggering a further £3.7 million (US$6 million) in funding for the development of fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies.
The investment will be made by Intelligent Energy Holdings (IEH), Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE), Scotland’s main economic development agency.
Details concerning the milestones were not disclosed.
The joint venture combined Intelligent Energy’s fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies with Scottish and Southern Energy’s customer base and servicing business, to form IECHP (UK and Eire) Ltd., a company that has been developing fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) systems for the residential, commercial and light industrial markets in the UK and Ireland since its creation in 2008.
Having invested an initial £1.3 million, the companies pledged to make a further series of phased investments once certain milestones had been reached. By surpassing all mutually agreed milestones, IECHP (UK and Eire) Ltd. has now triggered a further £2.7 million investment from SSE and IEH,
IECHP (UK and Eire) Ltd also welcomes Scottish Enterprise as a shareholder through a phased investment of up to £1 million via its Scottish Venture Fund which invests alongside private sector partners to encourage greater levels of risk capital investment in early stage Scottish companies.
SSE has also strengthened its relationship with Intelligent Energy by purchasing shares in Intelligent Energy Holdings. The size of that investment was not disclosed.
"SSE is committed to the development of new low-carbon technologies in the distributed heat and generation sectors," Ian Marchant, CEO of Scottish and Southern Energy, said.
Intelligent Energy is a clean power systems company with fuel cell and hydrogen generation technologies. Intelligent Energy’s successes in recent years include the development of the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell motorbike and supplying the fuel cell system to Boeing which powered the world’s first manned fuel cell aircraft. The company is currently leading a consortium to deliver a fleet of zero-emissions Fuel Cell Hybrid London taxis for introduction in London for 2012.
SSE is the UK’s second largest energy company, supplying electricity and gas to around 9.7 million customers.
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