Green hydrogen power provider GeoPura announced today that it has raised £36 million in an investment round led by General Motors’ investment arm GM Ventures and co-led by Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital. Proceeds from the investment will help the company to scale business providing green hydrogen power to replace fossil fuels across multiple sectors. Additional investors participating in the round included SWEN CP and Siemens Energy Ventures.

Founded in 2019, GeoPura supplies clean energy to users that require power at temporary sites, long-term backup, off-grid power, and energy supply to augment existing grids. The company provides Hydrogen Power Units (HPU), developed in collaboration with Siemens Energy, built on industrial hydrogen fuel cells.

Andrew Cunningham, CEO of GeoPura, said:

“Green hydrogen is too often seen as a technology that will happen in the future, but GeoPura and our partners are delivering a commercially viable technology, today. The world can’t afford to wait a decade for green fuels to scale – we must act now.”

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical.

Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, however, there are no pure hydrogen deposits on Earth and it must be extracted from other materials. Around 90 million metric tons of hydrogen are produced annually, primarily extracted from natural gas through steam methane reforming. The extraction process often creates pollutants and GHG emissions. Significant investments are required to develop clean extraction processes, such as green hydrogen, which uses a renewable energy-powered electrolysis process to extract hydrogen from water.

GeoPura said that it is initially targeting sectors with the highest diesel use, such as construction, infrastructure, outdoor events, and back-up power, as well as providing a solution for commercial EV charging where a local electricity network isn’t available. The company’s hydrogen power customers include Balfour Beatty, HS2, National Grid and the BBC.

According to the company, the new investment will enable it to mass manufacture HPUs with Siemens Energy, increase the production of green hydrogen to fuel the units, and support the technology’s global deployment. The company also aims to bring new products to market, to address both smaller and larger power requirements.

Wade Sheffer, Managing Director, GM Ventures, said:

“The need for green hydrogen energy solutions is expanding as a wide range of customers move toward replacing diesel-powered sources. Our investment in GeoPura demonstrates our focus on scaling breakthrough innovations that can advance sustainability, while supporting GM’s progress toward an all-electric, zero-emissions future.”

James Ferrier, Director, Principal Investments, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital added:

“Whilst most of the focus in the UK is rightly on ‘greening’ our energy grid, industries which are reliant on fossil-fuel powered generators – such as construction, film production and events – should not be forgotten. Establishing tailored methods of off-grid green energy generation such as GeoPura’s Hydrogen Power Unit technology will be crucial for the decarbonisation of these industries, and we are excited to support GeoPura as they begin to scale.”