Shares of Sheffield-based clean fuel company ITM Power rose 8% after it said a consortium including ITM won £8.8 million in funding from the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) to improve access to an expanded network of hydrogen refuelling stations to support the continued roll out of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in the UK.

The consortium also involves Shell, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.

ITM Power also gave an “operations update” in which it said currently has £33.3 million of projects under contract and a further £5.5 million of contracts in the final stages of negotiation.

Out of the £8.8 million funding, ITM Power will receive £4.3 million from the DfT to build four new hydrogen refuelling stations and to upgrade five existing hydrogen refuelling stations to increase capacity to support a larger fleet of FCEVs.

The project has further funding support from the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).

ITM Power CEO Graham Cooley said: “This project will deliver the largest expansion of the hydrogen refuelling infrastructure ever undertaken in the UK and is a very significant step forward for the UK hydrogen industry.

“The project will fund ITM Power to build four new hydrogen refuelling stations and upgrade five further stations.

“Our partnership with Shell, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai constitutes a highly coordinated roll out of hydrogen vehicles and refuelling infrastructure.”