ITM Power (www.itm-power.com) — the Sheffield-based energy-storage and ‘clean fuel’ company — has announced that JCB Research (one of the excavator group’s subsidiaries) and Valebond Consultants (wholly owned by Jo Bamford, heir to the JCB fortune) will take a combined 9.1% stake and become the largest shareholder.

Chief executive Graham Cooley said: “In addition to the new funds that this investment brings to ITM Power, we are delighted to have on board a strategic investor who can potentially add significant value to our business. I look forward to working with JCB as we scale up our business and seek to enter new markets with our product offering.”

Lord Bamford, chairman of JCB Research and founder of the JCB empire itself, said: “We are excited by the prospects of hydrogen technology and our investment in ITM Power. We expect to be an actively supportive shareholder; we look forward to working with the board and management team and to sharing some of our expertise in manufacturing and
engineering.”

ITM Power has developed an electrolyser that converts excess electricity into hydrogen. It recently installed its third power-to-gas storage system in Germany.