Dalkia UK wins contract to deliver one of the UK’s first green hydrogen production facilities

  Posted by: electime      20th May 2026

Dalkia UK’s Engineering team has secured a contract to deliver the Barrow Green Hydrogen project in Cumbria – one of the first renewable hydrogen production facilities to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) in the UK.

The project is being delivered by Green Hydrogen Energy Company (GHECO), the joint venture established in 2023 by Schroders Greencoat, the specialist renewables and energy transition infrastructure manager, and Carlton Power, the British independent energy infrastructure company.

The Barrow Green Hydrogen project is supported by the UK Government via its Hydrogen Business Model/Hydrogen Allocation Round 1.

The agreement will see Dalkia provide design and installation services to deliver a 30MW green hydrogen plant in Barrow-in-Furness. The hydrogen will be used by Kimberly-Clark at its manufacturing plant in the town, where the company manufactures consumer products including Andrex® and Kleenex® . The use of green hydrogen will reduce Kimberly-Clark’s reliance on natural gas as part of its global decarbonisation strategy. The Kimberly-Clark Barrow site will reduce its consumption of natural gas by up to 50% with a reduction of 18,300 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, a long-term power purchase agreement with SEFE, an international energy company, has been agreed for the supply of renewable electricity.

Today’s announcement follows more than three years of collaborative preconstruction design works between Dalkia and Barrow Green Hydrogen Limited. The main construction works will start in the summer, with the start of commercial operation within the next two years.

Dalkia will manage the total range of services from design to commissioning.  The project scope also includes six, containerised 5MW Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers provided under a separate contract by Plug Power, which use renewable electricity to generate hydrogen; as well as ancillary equipment. Dalkia will mechanically and electrically connect the infrastructure.

In addition, teams will also use modular construction and prefabrication techniques to accelerate delivery, bring certainty to the programme and minimise waste.

Dalkia will coordinate utilities to site; and provide civils, hydrogen storage, further Mechanical and Electrical Services, fire and security, trenching and pipework; SCADA & National Grid Interfaces, Hazard Identification, Control & Monitoring; as well as Testing, Commissioning, and Setting to Work.

Rob Faro, Managing Director of Dalkia Engineering, said: “Dalkia is backed by EDF which is a global leader in green energies, and we are proud to have brought our expertise into a collaborative partnership with the client to optimise delivery of one of the first hydrogen production facilities to reach FID in the UK.

“The development of green and renewable energies is a strategic priority for the UK, and Dalkia – and we invite any other interested stakeholders to join us in the conversation.”

Eric Adams, Carlton Power’s Hydrogen Director said: “Dalkia brings valuable expertise and experience to the Barrow project, one of the first green hydrogen projects to enter construction in the UK.  The construction of Barrow and our other green hydrogen projects within our portfolio will provide a major spur to the UK’s hydrogen ambitions and the broader efforts to decarbonise UK industry.”

Kristian Høeg Madsen, Co-Head of Hydrogen Investments at Schroders Greencoat, said: “We have significant ambitions to grow the GHECO platform – reaching Final Investment Decision on Barrow is therefore a key milestone for Schroders Greencoat, as well as the UK’s emerging hydrogen economy. Through our origination, structuring and execution capabilities, we have combined a Contract for Difference, a long-term PPA with SEFE and a credible industrial offtake in Kimberly-Clark to build exactly the kind of contracted, inflation-linked infrastructure our investors are looking for. This represents an exciting milestone for the project, and we are delighted to start construction of this pioneering asset.

“We believe hydrogen is central to the next phase of the energy transition and projects like Barrow demonstrate how Schroders Greencoat can unlock opportunities for investors and deploy institutional capital at pace to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors. Building on our long track-record in renewable and energy transition aligned infrastructure, Barrow marks our first move into hydrogen at scale and is the first of many such projects we expect to deliver.”

This development supports the UK Government’s low-carbon hydrogen production programme, part of the UK’s clean energy mission, and represents a meaningful step in mobilising private capital at scale behind the UK’s hydrogen ambitions.

The project is being constructed under the first wave of Low Carbon Hydrogen Agreements being let by the UK Government and received in the first Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR1).