RES and Octopus Energy Generation’s green H₂ joint venture HYRO is working with Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of household brands like Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies, to swap gas for green H₂ at UK factories, to reduce emissions and boost energy security.

HYRO is working with industrial businesses to develop, own and operate green H₂ plants, making the most of local renewables when it’s sunny and windy. In this latest deal, HYRO is developing electrolyzers to produce green H₂ at two Kimberly-Clark UK manufacturing facilities.

The onsite electrolyzers will use electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar to create green H₂, which will be stored and fed into H₂-ready boilers inside the factories, replacing industrial natural gas-fueled boilers. It will create heat needed in the manufacturing processes for tissues and toilet paper.

The two projects in Wales and Kent have now also won places on the Government's shortlist for funding. The two electrolyzer projects will have a combined capacity of 22.5 MW and will reduce thousands of tpy of CO₂ emissions for Kimberly-Clark. It will also help meet government green H₂ targets by 2030.

This comes as HYRO plans to invest £3 B to build green H₂ plants in the UK. The investments are turbocharging the country’s clean H₂ economy, creating green jobs whilst increasing Britain’s energy independence.

Rachel Ruffle, RES EMEA CEO, said, “Green H₂ developed and produced using renewable energy in the UK can provide a reliable, cost-competitive source of power for industrial businesses. HYRO’s partnership with Kimberly-Clark demonstrates how we can transition to clean fuels, creating jobs, investment, and a globally competitive economy in the process.”

Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management team, said, “This deal with Kimberly-Clark means well-loved household brands will soon be manufactured with green H₂ instead of polluting gas. For heavy industries unable to electrify, H₂ produced from home-grown clean energy like wind and solar can be a winning solution. We hope more businesses follow their lead to a future without fossil fuels.”

Oriol Margo, EMEA Sustainability Leader, Kimberly-Clark, said, “These developments represent a huge step towards our ambition to move solely to renewable energy to manufacture Andrex, Kleenex, Huggies, WypAll and Scott in the UK by 2030. A lot of hard work has gone into developing the green H₂ projects and it’s fantastic to see the UK Government selecting them for the funding shortlist.”