- Hydrasun will establish Scotland’s first facility dedicated to electrolyser assembly and integration under a framework agreement with Norway’s Nel.
- The Aberdeen plant will assemble modular 1.25 MW and 2.5 MW PEM systems, supported by £1.9 million from Scotland’s Just Transition Fund.
- Up to 12 jobs will be created and 11 safeguarded, but the electrolyser stacks will continue to be manufactured in the US.
Aberdeen is to gain Scotland’s first dedicated electrolyser assembly and integration facility as Hydrasun and Norwegian manufacturer Nel seek to localise part of Europe’s hydrogen equipment supply chain.
Under a framework agreement announced late last week, Hydrasun will develop production lines for Nel’s MC Series of containerised proton exchange membrane electrolysers. The platform is available in 1.25 MW and 2.5 MW modules, allowing customers to combine standardised units rather than commission an entirely bespoke system.
Hydrasun will procure, manufacture and integrate the equipment surrounding the electrolyser stack, collectively known as the balance of plant. This can include power, water treatment, cooling, compression, piping and control systems. Nel will continue producing the core PEM stacks at its factory in Wallingford, Connecticut.
The project is backed by £1.9 million from the Scottish government’s Just Transition Fund. It is expected to create up to 12 jobs and safeguard another 11 as Hydrasun upgrades its existing Aberdeen facilities, according to local reports.
Hydrasun chief executive James Gaskell described the project as “an important step forward for Aberdeen’s energy sector”, adding that it would give the city genuine clean energy manufacturing capability.
Nel said the partnership would complement its US integration capacity and bring production closer to European customers. “This collaboration enhances our ability to serve key markets,” said Tushar Ghuwalewala, Nel’s senior vice-president for PEM operations.
Practical foothold
Electrolyser stacks contain the membranes and electrochemical components where hydrogen is produced. They represent a technically demanding and valuable part of the system. Those components will still be imported from the US, meaning the project does not establish a fully domestic electrolyser manufacturing chain.
However, balance-of-plant integration is not simply final assembly. It requires engineering, fabrication, safety expertise, control systems and an understanding of how hydrogen equipment interacts with customer sites. These are areas in which Aberdeen’s oil and gas supply chain already has transferable capabilities.
Hydrasun, founded in the city in 1976, employs more than 500 people across five countries and specialises in fluid transfer, power and control systems. The company already has a commercial relationship with Nel, having selected a 2.5 MW Nel unit for the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub.
The modular approach could also reduce project risk. Factory integration enables more work to be completed in controlled conditions, potentially shortening on-site construction and commissioning. Standardised units may be attractive to smaller industrial users that cannot support the engineering costs or delivery risk of a large custom-built plant.
The harder question is order flow. Europe’s hydrogen market has suffered cancellations because production costs remain high and customers have been reluctant to sign long-term offtake agreements. The new facility’s commercial value will depend on how many European projects move from announced capacity to firm equipment orders.
The timing is nonetheless encouraging. The Hydrogen Council reports that committed clean hydrogen investment has reached $130 billion and that operational capacity rose 70% over the past year. Its 2026 industry assessment also shows that Europe leads the world by number of committed projects, giving Nel a rationale for adding regional integration capacity.
For north-east Scotland, the significance is less the initial employment number than the industrial position it creates. Twelve new jobs will not offset contraction in offshore oil and gas. A functioning production line, however, can establish supplier relationships, train technicians and create a base from which activity expands if orders arrive.
The facility is therefore a credible piece of transition infrastructure, but its success should be measured by electrolysers delivered and local content added, not by the “first in Scotland” label alone.
