UNITED STATES 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One) 

☐ REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☐ SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of event requiring this shell company report ____________

Commission File Number 001-39789

FUSION FUEL GREEN PLC

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Ireland

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

The Victorians

15-18 Earlsfort Terrace

Saint Kevin’s

Dublin 2, D02 YX28, Ireland

(Address of principal executive offices)

Frederico Figueira de Chaves, Chief Financial Officer

The Victorians

15-18 Earlsfort Terrace

Saint Kevin’s

Dublin 2, D02 YX28, Ireland
Tel: +353 1 920 1000

(Name, telephone, e-mail and/or facsimile number and address of Company contact person)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

None

(Title of class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report: As of December 31, 2022, there were 13,805,648 Class A Ordinary Shares issued and outstanding.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

Yes ☐ No ☒

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).

Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow.

Item 17 ☐ Item 18 ☐

If this report is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

Yes ☐ No ☒

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

In this Annual Report on Form 20-F (this “Annual Report”), unless otherwise indicated, all references to “we,” “our,” “us,” the “Company,” “Parent” or “Fusion Fuel,” and all similar terms, refer to Fusion Fuel Green plc, a public limited company incorporated in Ireland.

Financial Statement Presentation

The historical financial statements presented in this Annual Report were prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”) and are denominated in Euros (“EUR” or “€”).

Parent qualifies as a Foreign Private Issuer and prepares its financial statements in accordance with IFRS.

Exchange Rate Information

The translations from USD to EUR in this Annual Report were made at a rate of USD 1 to EUR 1.07, which is the rate published by “Banco de Portugal” (Bank of Portugal) on December 31, 2022.

We make no representation that the EUR or USD amounts referenced in this Annual Report could have been or could be converted into EUR or USD, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. On May 5, 2023, the noon buying rate as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board was USD 1 to EUR 1.10.

Summary of Risk Factors:

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in the section titled “Risk Factors,” alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. Such risks include, but are not limited to:

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains or may contain forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) that involve significant risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include information about our possible or assumed future results of operations or our performance. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those listed under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation,” and elsewhere in this Annual Report that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

In some cases, these forward-looking statements can be identified by words and phrases such as “may,” “should,” “intend,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “believe,” “is /are likely to” or the negative form of these words and phrases or other comparable expressions. The forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report relate to, among other things:

These forward-looking statements involve various risks, assumptions and uncertainties. Although we believe that our expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, our expectations may turn out to be incorrect. Our actual results could be materially different from or worse than our expectations. You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we refer to in this Annual Report with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from and worse than what we expect. Other sections of this Annual Report include additional factors which could adversely impact our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this Annual Report. All forward-looking statements included herein attributable to us or other parties or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this Annual Report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as otherwise required by the U.S. federal securities laws.

PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not applicable.

ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

A. [RESERVED] 

B. Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

C. Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

D. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the following risk factors and all of the information contained in this Annual Report, including but not limited to, the matters addressed in the section titled “Forward-Looking Statements,” and the financial information with respect to Parent before you decide whether to invest in our securities. The value of your investment will be subject to the significant risks affecting us and inherent in the Green Hydrogen industry and the Iberian market. Any of the following risks could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. This could cause the trading price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants to decline, perhaps significantly, and you could lose all or a part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not consider to be material may also materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Risks Relating to Our Business

Parent and Fusion Fuel Portugal have a limited operating history.

Parent and Fusion Fuel Portugal have a limited operating history. Because of this, your basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objectives and operate profitably is correspondingly limited. This could adversely affect the price of our securities and future prospects.

We may need additional capital in the future to meet our financial obligations and to pursue our business objectives. Additional capital may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, which could compromise our ability to meet our financial obligations and grow our business.

Our future capital requirements depend on many factors, including our research, development, and sales and marketing activities. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth. Accordingly, we may require additional funds to:

If we do not have, or are not able to obtain, sufficient funds, we may have to delay product development initiatives or license to third parties the rights to commercialize products or technologies we would otherwise seek to market. We also may have to reduce marketing, customer support or other resources devoted to our products.

If we need to raise additional capital through public or private equity or debt offerings or through arrangements with strategic partners or other sources in the future in order to continue to develop and commercialize our products and product candidates, we cannot assure you that additional capital will be available when needed or on terms satisfactory to us, if at all. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our shareholders may experience substantial dilution and the new equity securities may have greater rights, preferences or privileges than our existing Class A ordinary shares.

The green hydrogen production industry is an emerging market and green hydrogen production may not receive widespread market acceptance.

The green hydrogen production industry is still relatively nascent in an otherwise mature and heavily regulated industry, and we cannot be sure that potential customers will accept hydrogen production broadly, or our HEVO based products specifically. Enterprises may be unwilling to adopt our solution over traditional or competing power sources for any number of reasons including the perception that our technology is unproven, a lack of confidence in our business model, the perceived unavailability of back-up service providers to operate and maintain our technology, and lack of awareness of our product or the perception of regulatory or political headwinds. In addition, companies may take longer than expected to use green hydrogen over brown hydrogen due to potential price differentiation. Because this is an emerging industry, broad acceptance of our products and services is subject to a high level of uncertainty and risk. If the market develops more slowly than we anticipate, our business will be harmed. 

Our limited operating history and our nascent industry make evaluating our business and future prospects difficult.

The Fusion Fuel team began its work in the renewable energy industry in 2008, and since such time we have been focused principally on research and development activities relating to concentrated solar power, part of which we have applied to our technology. Fusion Fuel´s hydrogen project began in 2018. Although the hydrogen project is an extension of our historical business it comes with some different challenges, including the challenges described elsewhere in these “Risk Factors” which we may not have the experience or ability to successfully overcome. Furthermore, our hydrogen generator, the HEVO, is a new type of product in the nascent hydrogen industry. Consequently, predicting our future revenue and appropriately budgeting for our expenses is difficult, and we have limited insight into trends that may emerge and affect our business. If actual results differ from our estimates or if we adjust our estimates in future periods, our operating results and financial position could be materially and adversely affected.

Fusion Fuel’s products involve a lengthy sales and installation cycle and if we fail to close sales on a regular and timely basis, our business could be harmed.

  Fusion Fuel’s sales cycle is typically 12 to 24 months but can vary considerably. In order to make a sale, we must typically provide a significant level of education to prospective customers regarding the use and benefits of Fusion Fuel’s products and technology. The period between initial discussions with a potential customer and the eventual sale of even a single product typically depends on a number of factors, including the potential customer’s budget, required construction and production licenses, and the decision as to the type of financing it chooses to use as well as the arrangement of such financing. Prospective customers often undertake a significant evaluation process which may further extend the sales cycle. Once a customer makes a formal decision to purchase our product, the fulfilment of the sales order by us will require a substantial amount of time. We expect the time between the entry into a sales contract with a customer and the installation of our technology to range from three to nine months or more depending on the licensing and permitting stages of a project. This lengthy sales and installation cycle is subject to a number of significant risks over which we have little or no control. Because of both the long sales and long installation cycles, we may expend significant resources without having certainty of generating a sale. 

These lengthy sales and installation cycles increase the risk that an installation may be delayed and/or may not be completed. In some instances, a customer can cancel an order for a particular site prior to installation, and we may be unable to recover some or all of our costs in connection with design, permitting, installation and site preparations incurred prior to cancellation. Our operating expenses are based on anticipated sales levels, and many of our expenses are fixed. If we are unsuccessful in closing sales after expending significant resources or if we experience delays or cancellations, our business could be materially and adversely affected. Since we do not recognize revenue on the sales of our products until installation and acceptance, a small fluctuation in the timing of the completion of our sales transactions could cause operating results to vary materially from period to period. 

We believe that part of the cancellation risk is mitigated in these early years, as our first projects are being developed for Fusion Fuel’s own business line. Fusion Fuel will then operate the first green hydrogen plants. 

The economic benefits to our customers of our HEVO-Solar solution over competitor products depend on the cost of electricity available from alternative sources including local electric utility companies, which cost structure is subject to change.  

We believe that a customer’s decision to purchase our HEVO-Solar technology is significantly influenced by the price predictability of electricity generated by the system in comparison to the retail price and the future price outlook of electricity from the local utility grid and other energy sources. The economic benefit of our solution to our customers includes, among other things, the benefit of reducing such customer’s payments to the local utility company. The rates at which electricity is available from a customer’s local electric utility company is subject to change and any changes in such rates may affect the relative benefits of our products. Even in markets where we are competitive today, rates for electricity could decrease and render our solutions uncompetitive. Several factors could lead to a reduction in the price or future price outlook for grid electricity, including the impact of energy conservation initiatives that reduce electricity consumption, construction of additional power generation plants (including nuclear, coal or natural gas) and technological developments by others in the electric power industry which could result in electricity being available at costs lower than those that we can achieve. If the retail price of grid electricity decreases at a faster rate than we or our customers expect, it could reduce demand for our HEVO-Solar products and harm our business. 

Fusion Fuel also has a centralized electrolyzer offering, the HEVO-Chain, which is able to compete with other electrolyzers in the market and therefore we believe this risk can be mitigated.

We currently face and will continue to face significant competition.

Fusion Fuel operates in a highly competitive industry. We compete for customers, financing partners, and incentive dollars with other electric power providers and hydrogen solutions. Several of our primary competitors are diversified multinational companies with substantially larger operating staff and greater capital resources. Further, many providers, such as traditional utilities and other companies offering distributed generation products, have longer operating histories, have customer incumbency advantages, have access to and influence with local and state governments, and have access to more capital resources than do we. These larger competitors’ greater resources could allow them to better withstand industry downturns and to compete more effectively on the basis of technology, geographic scope and retained skilled personnel. If these competitors substantially increase the resources they devote to developing and marketing competitive solutions and services, we may not be able to compete effectively. Similarly, consolidation among their competitors could enhance their product and service offerings and financial resources, further intensifying competition. Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as energy storage, wind, solar, or hydro power generation, or improvements in the efficiency or cost of traditional energy sources, including coal, oil, natural gas used in combustion, or nuclear power, may materially and adversely affect our business and prospects in ways we cannot anticipate. We may also face new competitors who are not currently in the market. If we fail to adapt to changing market conditions and to compete successfully with grid electricity or new competitors, our growth will be limited which would adversely affect our business results.

We depend on a few customers for the majority of our revenues and the loss of any such customers could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We sell most of Fusion Fuel’s products to a range of customers that currently includes a few anchor customers, and, while we are continually seeking to expand our customer base, we expect this concentration of our customer base will continue for the next several years. Accordingly, our near-term success depends upon the continued purchases of our products by a small number of customers, and any fluctuation or decline in business with our major customers could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our dependence on a small number of major customers may expose us to additional risks. For instance, a slowdown, delay or reduction in a customer’s orders could result in excess inventories or unexpected quarterly fluctuations in our operating results and liquidity. Our major customers may have significant purchasing leverage over us to require changes in sales terms including pricing, payment terms and product delivery schedules, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. If one of our major customers delays payment of or is unable to pay their receivables, that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. While we believe that part of this cancellation risk will be mitigated in the early years as the first projects will be developed for Fusion Fuel’s own business line, and Fusion Fuel will then operate the first green hydrogen plants, we cannot assure you of that. If we are unable to build and maintain a broad customer base and build relationships with potential new customers, our business may be adversely affected.

Risks Relating to our Products and Manufacturing

Weakness in the economy, market trends and other conditions affecting the profitability and financial stability of our customers could negatively impact our sales growth and results of operations.

The demand for our products and services is sensitive to the production activity, capital spending and demand for products and services of our customers. Many of our potential customers operate in markets that are subject to cyclical fluctuations resulting from market uncertainty, trade and tariff policies, currency exchange rates, central bank interest rate changes, foreign competition, offshoring of production, oil and natural gas prices, geopolitical developments, labor shortages, inflation, deflation, and a variety of other factors beyond our control. Any of these factors could cause customers to idle or close facilities, delay purchases, reduce production levels, or experience reductions in the demand for their own products or services. Any of these events could also reduce the volume of products and services these customers purchase from us or impair the ability of our customers to make full and timely payments and could cause increased pressure on our selling prices and terms of sale. Accordingly, a significant or prolonged slowdown in activity in any major world economy, or a segment of any such economy, could negatively impact our sales growth and results of operations.

Our future success depends in part on our ability to increase our production capacity, and we may not be able to do so in a cost-effective manner and cannot guarantee that our production partners ramp up in time.

To the extent we are successful in growing our business, we may need to increase our production capacity. Our ability to plan, obtain financing, construct, and equip additional manufacturing facilities is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the following: 

This risk is partially mitigated because we currently outsource all production functions which are non-related to our HEVO technology to third parties. If any of our key suppliers are unable to expand their manufacturing facilities, we may be unable to further scale our business. Over the next three to five years, Fusion Fuel is in the process of establishing its own assembly line(s) and production plant(s). If we are unable to do so, this could limit the ability of Fusion Fuel to scale its business. If the demand for our technology or our production output decreases or does not rise as expected, we may not be able to spread a significant amount of our fixed costs over the production volume, resulting in a greater than expected per unit fixed cost, which would have a negative impact on our financial condition and our results of operations.

The performance of our technology may be affected by field conditions and other factors outside of our control, which could result in harm to our business and financial results.

Field conditions, such as the natural elements and utility processes which vary by region and may be subject to seasonal fluctuations, are not always possible to predict until the plant is in operation. Although we believe we have designed the units to withstand the variety of field conditions we expect to encounter, as we move into new geographies and deploy new service configurations, we may encounter new and unanticipated field conditions. Adverse impacts on performance may require us to incur significant re-engineering costs or divert the attention of our engineering personnel from product development efforts. Furthermore, we may be unable to adequately address the impacts of factors outside of our control in a manner satisfactory to our customers. Any of these circumstances could significantly and adversely affect customer satisfaction, market acceptance, and our business reputation.

If our products contain manufacturing defects, our business and financial results could be harmed.

Our units are complex products and they may contain undetected or latent errors or defects. Changes in our supply chain or the failure of our suppliers to otherwise provide us with components or materials that meet our specifications could also introduce defects into our products. In addition, as we grow our manufacturing volume, the chance of manufacturing defects could increase. Any manufacturing defects or other failures of our systems to perform as expected could cause us to incur significant re-engineering and replacement costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from product development efforts, and significantly and adversely affect customer satisfaction, market acceptance, and our business reputation. Given the fact that the electrolyzers only produce around 20 grams of hydrogen each day and that they operate in an open area, there is little to no safety risk to employees or customers. 

Furthermore, we may be unable to correct manufacturing defects or other failures of our products in a manner satisfactory to our customers, which could adversely affect customer satisfaction, market acceptance, and our business reputation.

Fusion Fuel’s products create a flammable fuel that is an inherently dangerous substance.

Our systems create hydrogen gas through electrolysis. While our products do not use this fuel in a combustion process, hydrogen gas is a flammable fuel that could leak and combust if ignited by another source. Further, any such accidents involving our products or other products using similar flammable fuels could materially suppress demand for, or heighten regulatory scrutiny of, our products. 

The risk of product liability claims and associated adverse publicity is inherent in the development, manufacturing, marketing and sale of hydrogen, a flammable gas. Any liability for damages resulting from malfunctions or design defects could be substantial and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, an actual or perceived problem with our products could adversely affect the market’s perception of our products resulting in a decline in demand for our products, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. 

Each green hydrogen production plant will consider purchasing an insurance policy to insure such project to mitigate this operational risk, but due to the nascent industry and market for these products, it is unknown what the financial burden might be of any such insurance policy, and we may determine that the costs of insuring for these risks make it impractical for us to obtain insurance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that each plant will purchase insurance nor that any insurance coverage purchased will be adequate. Any uninsured occurrence of business disruption, litigation, natural disaster, or significant damages to our uninsured equipment or technology infrastructure could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources for us and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Fusion Fuel’s purchase orders may not ship, be commissioned or installed, or convert to revenue.

Some of the orders we accept from customers may require certain conditions or contingencies to be satisfied, or may be cancelled, prior to shipment or prior to commissioning or installation, some of which are outside of our control. The time periods from receipt of an order to shipment date and installation vary widely and are determined by a number of factors, including the terms of the customer contract and the customer’s deployment plan. There may also be product redesign or modification requirements that must be satisfied prior to shipment of units under certain of our agreements. If the redesigns or modifications are not completed, some or all of our orders may not ship or convert to revenue. In certain cases, we may publicly disclose anticipated, pending orders with prospective customers; however, those prospective customers may require certain conditions or contingencies to be satisfied prior to entering into a purchase order with us, some of which are outside of our control. Such conditions or contingencies that may be required to be satisfied before we receive a purchase order may include, but are not limited to, successful product demonstrations or field trials. Converting orders into revenue may also depend upon our customers’ ability to obtain financing. Some conditions or contingencies that are out of our control may include, but are not limited to, government tax policy, government funding programs, and government incentive programs. Additionally, some conditions and contingencies may extend for several years. We may have to compensate customers, by either reimbursement, forfeiting portions of associated revenue, or other methods depending on the terms of the customer contract, based on the failure on any of these conditions or contingencies. While not probable, this could have an adverse impact on our revenue and cash flow.

If our estimates of the useful life for our units are inaccurate or we do not meet service and performance warranties and guaranties, or if we fail to accrue adequate warranty and guaranty reserves, our business and financial results could be harmed.

We will provide performance warranties and guaranties covering the efficiency and output performance of our Hydrogen Generators for the first five years. Our pricing of these contracts and our reserves for warranty and replacement will be based upon our estimates of the useful life of our units and their components, including assumptions regarding improvements in power module life that may fail to materialize. Although there is a 12-year history on the solar tracking systems, the Direct Coupled Photo Electrochemical Hydrogen Generator (the “HEVO”), which produces green hydrogen at one of the highest efficiency ratios and at the most competitive cost (€/Kg) in the green hydrogen industry, does not have a long history with a large number of field deployments, and our estimates may prove to be incorrect. Failure to meet these performance warranties and guaranty levels may require us to replace the units at our expense or refund their cost to the customer, or require us to make cash payments to the customer based on actual performance, as compared to expected performance, capped at a percentage of the relevant equipment purchase prices. We will accrue for product warranty costs and recognize losses on service or performance warranties when required by IFRS based on our estimates of costs that may be incurred and based on historical experience. However, as we expect our customers to renew their maintenance service agreements each year, the total liability over time may be more than the accrual. Actual warranty expenses have in the past been below and may in the future be greater than we have assumed in our estimates, the accuracy of which may be hindered due to our limited history operating at our current scale.

Our business is subject to risks associated with construction, utility interconnection, cost overruns and delays, including those related to obtaining government permits and other contingencies that may arise in the course of completing installations.

Payments on the sales of our units are paid in instalments, including an up-front payment upon placing an order, a payment on delivery, and a final payment upon the installation and acceptance (except where a third party is responsible for installation). Therefore, our financial results may be impacted by the timeliness of the installation or delivery of the units. Furthermore, in some cases, the installation of the units may be on a fixed price basis, which subjects us to the risk of cost overruns or other unforeseen expenses in the installation process. 

The construction, installation, and operation of our units at a particular site is also generally subject to oversight and regulation in accordance with applicable laws and ordinances relating to building codes, safety, environmental protection, and related matters, and typically require various governmental approvals and permits, including environmental approvals and permits, that vary by jurisdiction. In some cases, these approvals and permits require periodic renewal. It is difficult and costly to track the requirements of every individual authority having jurisdiction over our installations, to design our units to comply with these varying standards, and to obtain all applicable approvals and permits. We cannot predict whether or when all permits required for a given project will be granted or whether the conditions associated with the permits will be achievable. The denial of a permit or utility connection essential to a project or the imposition of impractical conditions would impair our ability to develop the project. In addition, we cannot predict whether the permitting process will be lengthened due to complexities and appeals. Delay in the review and permitting process for a project can impair or delay our and our customers’ abilities to develop that project or may increase the cost so substantially that the project is no longer attractive to us or our customers. Furthermore, unforeseen delays in the review and permitting process could delay the timing of the installation and could therefore adversely affect the timing of the recognition of revenue related to the installation, which could harm our operating results in a particular period. 

In addition, the completion of many of our installations depends on the availability of and timely connection to the natural gas grid and the local electric grid. In some jurisdictions, local utility companies or the municipality may deny our request for connection or may require us to reduce the size of certain projects. Any delays in our ability to connect with utilities, delays in the performance of installation-related services, or poor performance of installation-related services by our general contractors or sub-contractors will have a material adverse effect on our results and could cause operating results to vary materially from period to period. 

Furthermore, at times we may rely on the ability of our third-party general contractors to install units at our customers’ sites and to meet our installation requirements. Our work with contractors or their sub-contractors may have the effect of us being required to comply with additional rules (including rules unique to our customers), working conditions, site remediation, and other union requirements, which can add costs and complexity to an installation project. The timeliness, thoroughness, and quality of the installation-related services performed by some of our general contractors and their sub-contractors in the past may not meet expectations or standards.

Any significant disruption in the operations at our or our partner’s manufacturing facilities could delay the production of our products, which would harm our business and results of operations.

We manufacture our solar concentration units in a limited number of manufacturing facilities, and initially with one key partner, MagP, any of which could become unavailable either temporarily or permanently for any number of reasons, including equipment failure, material supply, financial difficulties, public health emergencies, catastrophic weather or geologic events, or if the relationship between us and MagP deteriorates. In the event of a significant disruption to our manufacturing process, we may not be able to easily shift production to other facilities or to make up for lost production, which could result in harm to our reputation, increased costs, and lower revenues. The planned new Fusion Fuel production facility is expected to reduce our reliance on MagP, and, accordingly, would reduce the impact of any potential disruption at MagP’s plant.

Delays in or not completing our product development goals may adversely affect our revenue and profitability.

If we experience delays in meeting our development goals, our products exhibit technical defects, or if we are unable to meet cost reduction targets or performance goals, including power output, useful life and reliability, the profitable commercialization of our products will be delayed. In this event, potential purchasers of our products may choose alternative technologies and any delays could allow potential competitors to gain market advantages. We cannot assure that we will successfully meet our commercialization schedule in the future.

The failure of our suppliers to continue to deliver necessary raw materials or other components of our products in a timely manner or at all, or our inability to obtain substitute sources of these components on a timely basis or on terms acceptable to us, could prevent us from delivering our products within required time frames, impair our ability to manufacture our products, could increase our costs of production and could cause installation delays, cancellations, penalty payments, and damage to our reputation.

We rely on a limited number of third-party suppliers for some of the raw materials and components for our products, including components that may be of limited supply or require customized manufacturing specifications. If our suppliers provide insufficient inventory at the level of quality required to meet customer demand or if our suppliers are unable or unwilling to provide us with the contracted quantities (as we have limited or in some case no alternatives for supply), our results of operations could be materially and negatively impacted. If we fail to develop or maintain our relationships with our suppliers, or if there is otherwise a shortage or lack of availability of any required raw materials or components, we may be unable to manufacture our units or they may be available only at a higher cost or after a long delay. Such delays could prevent us from delivering units to our customers within required time frames and cause order cancellations. We have had to create our own supply chain for some of the components and materials utilized in our fuel cells. We have made significant expenditures in the past to develop our supply chain. In many cases, we entered into contractual relationships with suppliers to jointly develop the components we needed. These activities are time and capital intensive. Accordingly, the number of suppliers we have for some of our components and materials is limited and, in some cases, sole sourced. Some of our suppliers use proprietary processes to manufacture components. We may be unable to obtain comparable components from alternative suppliers without considerable delay, expense, or at all, as replacing these suppliers could require us either to make significant investments to bring the capability in-house or to invest in a new supply chain partner. Some of our suppliers are smaller, private companies, heavily dependent on us as a customer. If our suppliers face difficulties obtaining the credit or capital necessary to expand their operations when needed, they could be unable to supply necessary raw materials and components needed to support our planned sales and services operations, which would negatively impact our sales volumes and cash flows.  

Moreover, we may experience unanticipated disruptions and/or price increases to operations or other difficulties with our supply chain or internalized supply processes due to exchange rate fluctuations, volatility in regional markets from where materials are obtained, changes in the general macroeconomic outlook, global trade disputes, political instability, expropriation or nationalization of property, public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, civil strife, strikes, insurrections, acts of terrorism, acts of war, or natural disasters. The failure by us to obtain raw materials or components in a timely manner or to obtain raw materials or components that meet our quantity and cost requirements could impair our ability to manufacture items or increase their costs or service costs of our existing portfolio under maintenance services agreements. If we cannot obtain substitute materials or components on a timely basis or on acceptable terms, we could be prevented from delivering our solution to our customers within required time frames, which could result in sales and installation delays, cancellations, penalty payments, or damage to our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, we rely on our suppliers to meet quality standards, and the failure of our suppliers to meet or exceed those quality standards could cause delays in the delivery of our products, cause unanticipated servicing costs, and cause damage to our reputation.

Our ability to develop new products and enter into new markets could be negatively impacted if we are unable to identify suppliers to deliver new materials and components on a timely basis.

We continue to develop products for new markets and, as we move into those markets, must qualify new suppliers to manufacture and deliver the necessary components required to build and install those new products. Identifying new manufacturing partners is a lengthy process and is subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If we are unable to identify reliable manufacturing partners in a new market, our ability to expand our business could be limited and our financial conditions and results of operations could be harmed.

We face supply chain competition, including competition from businesses in other industries, which could result in insufficient inventory and negatively affect our results of operations.

Certain of our suppliers also supply parts and materials to other businesses including businesses engaged in the production of consumer electronics, satellite components and other industries unrelated to fuel cells. As a relatively low-volume purchaser of certain of these parts and materials, we may be unable to procure a sufficient supply of the items in the event that our suppliers fail to produce sufficient quantities to satisfy the demands of all of their customers, which could materially harm our financial condition and our results of operations. 

We, and some of our suppliers, obtain capital equipment used in our manufacturing process from sole suppliers and, if this equipment is damaged or otherwise unavailable, our ability to deliver on time will suffer.

Some of the equipment used to manufacture our products and some of the equipment used by our suppliers have been developed and made specifically for us, are not readily available from multiple vendors, and would be difficult to repair or replace if they did not function properly. If any of these suppliers were to experience financial difficulties or go out of business or if there were any damage to or a breakdown of our manufacturing equipment and we could not obtain replacement equipment in a timely manner, our business would suffer. In addition, a supplier’s failure to supply this equipment in a timely manner with adequate quality and on terms acceptable to us could disrupt our production schedule or increase our costs of production and service. 

Possible new tariffs could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our business is dependent on the availability of raw materials and components for our products, particularly electrical components common in the semiconductor industry, specialty steel products and processing and raw materials. Tariffs or other trade protection measures which are proposed or threatened, and the potential escalation of a trade war and retaliation measures could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.  

To the extent practicable, given the limitations in supply chain previously discussed, although we currently maintain alternative sources for materials, our business is subject to the risk of price fluctuations and periodic delays in the delivery of certain materials, which tariffs may exacerbate. Disruptions in the supply of raw materials and components could temporarily impair our ability to manufacture our solutions for our customers or require us to pay higher prices in order to obtain these raw materials or components from other sources, which could affect our business and our results of operations.

Fusion Fuel Portugal’s business plan leverages Portugal’s Hydrogen Strategy and Portugal’s investment in a green hydrogen economy. If there are any delays in the rollout of legislation or changes to Portugal’s Hydrogen Strategy, this could materially impact our business.

Fusion Fuel Portugal has its principal offices in Portugal, and all of its initial projects are located in Portugal and other jurisdictions in Southern Europe. All of our projects in Portugal will be impacted by the Portuguese laws governing the energy sector generally and the use of hydrogen specifically (including whether as a gas or fuel, and as pertains to production, storage, transportation, safety, and taxation). Delays in the rollout of legislation or changes to any existing legislation could have a material financial impact on Fusion Fuel Portugal and could cause delays to on-going projects and negotiations. Furthermore, economic difficulties or political changes in Portugal and other portions of Southern Europe could alter these governments’ intentions with respect to projects to which they have not yet formally committed. These same issues could have an impact in any new market into which we enter. 

Any disruption to or elimination of Portugal’s and Spain´s Hydrogen Strategy and other strategic plans for hydrogen production in could reduce demand for our products, lead to a reduction in our revenues and adversely impact our operating results and liquidity.  

We believe that the demand of our hydrogen energy technologies is impacted by Portugal’s and Spain´s Hydrogen Strategy and other strategic plans for hydrogen production that are emerging in Europe and around the world. These plans could be reduced or discontinued for other reasons, and the reduction, elimination, or expiration of these plans may result in the diminished economic competitiveness of our products to our customers and could materially and adversely affect the growth of alternative energy technologies, including our products, as well as our future operating results and liquidity. 

Our business may become subject to increased government regulation.

Our products are subject to laws and regulations, including, for example, state and local ordinances relating to building codes, public safety, electrical and gas pipeline connections, hydrogen transportation and siting and related matters. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in other jurisdictions. Further, as products are introduced into the market commercially, governments may impose new regulations. We do not know the extent to which any such regulations may impact our ability to manufacture, distribute, install and service our products. Any regulation of our products in any of the jurisdictions in which we intend to operate, including any regulations relating to the production, operation, installation, and servicing of our products may increase our costs and the price of our products, and noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations could subject us to investigations, sanctions, enforcement actions, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Risks Relating to Legal Matters and Regulations

We are subject to various environmental laws and regulations that could impose substantial costs upon us and cause delays in the delivery and installation of our units.

We are subject environmental laws and regulations as well as environmental laws in each jurisdiction in which we operate. Environmental laws and regulations can be complex and may often change. These laws can give rise to liability for administrative oversight costs, cleanup costs, property damage, bodily injury, fines, and penalties. Capital and operating expenses needed to comply with environmental laws and regulations can be significant, and violations may result in substantial fines and penalties or third-party damages. In addition, ensuring we are in compliance with applicable environmental laws requires significant time and management resources and could cause delays in our ability to build out, equip and operate our facilities as well as service our fleet, which would adversely impact our business, our prospects, our financial condition, and our operating results. If contamination is discovered in the future at properties formerly owned or operated by us or currently owned or operated by us, or properties to which hazardous substances were sent by us, it could result in our liability under environmental laws and regulations. Many of our customers have high sustainability standards, and any environmental noncompliance by us could harm our reputation and impact a current or potential customer’s buying decision. Additionally, in many cases we contractually commit to performing all necessary installation work on a fixed-price basis, and unanticipated costs associated with environmental remediation and/or compliance expenses may cause the cost of performing such work to exceed our revenue. The costs of complying with environmental laws, regulations, and customer requirements, and any claims concerning noncompliance or liability with respect to contamination in the future, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or our operating results.  

The installation and operation of hydrogen production units and renewable energy systems is subject to environmental laws and regulations in various jurisdictions, and there is uncertainty with respect to the interpretation of how certain environmental laws and regulations apply to our technology, especially as these regulations evolve over time.

We are committed to compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations including health and safety standards, and we continually review the operation of our units for health, safety, and environmental compliance. Maintaining compliance with laws and regulations can be challenging given the changing patchwork of environmental laws and regulations that prevail at the federal, state, regional, and local level. Most existing environmental laws and regulations preceded the introduction of our innovative fuel cell technology and were adopted to apply to technologies existing at the time (i.e., large coal, oil, or gas-fired power plants). Currently, there is generally little guidance from these agencies on how certain environmental laws and regulations may or may not be applied to our technology. Furthermore, we have not yet determined whether our units will satisfy regulatory requirements in locations in which we do not currently sell our solution but may pursue in the future. While we have determined that the HEVO-Solar units do not present any significant health hazard, based on our modelling, testing methodology, and measurements, we cannot assure you that regulators or governments in the regions where we sell and intend to be present will reach the same conclusions. We may not be able to adapt to changing laws and regulations, or changing interpretations of existing laws and regulations. Any such failure could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. 

We may become subject to product liability claims which could harm our financial condition and liquidity if we are not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims.

We may in the future become subject to product liability claims. Our technology produces flammable gases and therefore must operate in accordance with the required safety standards and rules applicable in each jurisdiction. These claims could require us to incur significant costs to defend. Furthermore, any successful product liability claim could require us to pay a substantial monetary award. Moreover, a product liability claim could generate substantial negative publicity about our Company and our product, which could harm our brand, our business prospects, and our operating results. 

Future litigation or administrative proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, our financial condition and our results of operations.

From time to time, we may be involved in legal proceedings, administrative proceedings, claims, and other litigation that could arise in the ordinary course of business. We may incur costs and expenses in connection with defending ourselves or in connection with the payment of any settlement or judgment or compliance with any ruling in connection therewith. The expense of defending litigation may be significant. The amount of time to resolve lawsuits is unpredictable and defending ourselves may divert management’s attention from the day to day operations of our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Unfavorable outcomes or developments relating to proceedings to which we are a party or transactions involving our products such as judgments for monetary damages, injunctions, or denial or revocation of permits, could have a material adverse effect on our business, our financial condition, and our results of operations. In addition, settlement of claims could adversely affect our financial condition and our results of operations.

In addition, since the HEVO is a new type of product in a nascent market, we may in the future need to seek the amendment of existing regulations, or in some cases the development of new regulations, in order to operate our business in some jurisdictions. Such regulatory processes may require public hearings concerning our business, which could expose us to subsequent litigation. 

Changes in tax laws or regulations or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. 

As we continue to expand internationally, we will be subject to income taxes in various jurisdictions. Given that the Fusion Fuel’s owned plants have a life span of 25 years a number of factors may adversely affect our future effective tax rates, such as the jurisdictions in which our profits are determined to be earned and taxed; changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities; adjustments to estimated taxes upon finalization of various tax returns; changes in available tax credits, grants and other incentives; changes in stock-based compensation expense; the availability of loss or credit carryforwards to offset taxable income; changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles or interpretations thereof; or examinations by jurisdictions that disagree with interpretations of tax rules and regulations in regard to positions taken on tax filings. A change in our effective tax rate due to any of these factors may adversely affect our future results from operations.

In addition, as our business grows, we are required to comply with increasingly complex taxation rules and practices. We will be subject to tax in additional jurisdictions as we continue to expand internationally. The development of our tax strategies requires additional expertise and may impact how we conduct our business. If our tax strategies are ineffective or we are not in compliance with domestic and international tax laws, our financial position, operating results and cash flows could be adversely affected.

Risks Relating to our Intellectual Property

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position, and litigation to protect our intellectual property rights may be costly.

Our ability to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary technologies and processes. Although we have taken many protective measures to protect our trade secrets including agreements, limited access, segregation of knowledge, password protections, and other measures, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology can be difficult and expensive. Also, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Such litigation may result in our intellectual property rights being challenged, limited in scope, or declared invalid or unenforceable. We cannot be certain that the outcome of any litigation will be in our favor, and an adverse determination in any such litigation could impair our intellectual property rights, our business, our prospects, and our reputation. 

We rely primarily on patent, trade secret, and non-disclosure, confidentiality, and other types of contractual restrictions to establish, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights. However, our rights under these laws and agreements afford us only limited protection and the actions we take to establish, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights may not be adequate. For example, our trade secrets and other confidential information could be disclosed in an unauthorized manner to third parties, our owned or licensed intellectual property rights could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed, or misappropriated or our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient to provide us with a competitive advantage, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or operating results. In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights as fully as do the laws of the United States or countries across Europe. As a result, we may not be able to protect our proprietary rights adequately abroad. 

Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, and our issued patents may not provide adequate protection, either of which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours.

We cannot be certain that our pending patent applications will result in issued patents or that any of our issued patents will afford protection against a competitor. The status of patents involves complex legal and factual questions, and the breadth of claims allowed is uncertain. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will result in patents being issued or that our patents and any patents that may be issued to us in the future will afford protection against competitors with similar technology. In the case of patents to be issued, we do not know that the claims allowed will be sufficiently broad to protect our technology or processes. Even if all of our patent applications are issued and are sufficiently broad, our patents may be challenged or invalidated. We could incur substantial costs in prosecuting or defending patent infringement suits or otherwise protecting our intellectual property rights. Furthermore, even if these patent applications are accepted and the associated patents issued, some foreign countries provide significantly less effective patent enforcement than in the United States or countries across Europe.

In addition, patents issued to us may be infringed upon or designed around by others and others may obtain patents that we need to license or design around, either of which would increase costs and may adversely affect our business, our prospects, and our operating results.

We may need to defend ourselves against claims that we infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated the intellectual property rights of others, which may be time-consuming and would cause us to incur substantial costs.

The tools, techniques, methodologies, processes, programs, and components that we use to provide our solutions may infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others. Companies, organizations, or individuals, including our competitors, may hold or obtain patents or other proprietary rights that they may in the future believe are infringed by our products or services. Although we are not currently subject to any claims related to intellectual property, these companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights allegedly relating to our technologies could, in the future, make claims or bring suits alleging infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of such rights, or otherwise assert their rights and by seeking licenses or injunctions. Infringement claims generally result in significant legal and other costs and may distract our management from running our core business. We also generally indemnify our customers against claims that the products we supply infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate third party intellectual property rights, and we therefore may be required to defend our customers against such claims. If a claim is successfully brought in the future and we or our products are determined to have infringed, misappropriated, or otherwise violated a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following: 

Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could harm our reputation, result in substantial costs and divert resources and management attention. We may need to pursue lawsuits or legal action in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, and to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. If third parties prepare and file applications for trademarks used or registered by us, we may oppose those applications and be required to participate in proceedings to determine the priority of rights to the trademark. Similarly, competitors may have filed applications for patents, may have received patents and may obtain additional patents and proprietary rights relating to products or technology that block or compete with ours. We may have to participate in interference proceedings to determine the priority of invention and the right to a patent for the technology. Litigation and interference proceedings, even if they are successful, are expensive to pursue and time consuming, and we could use a substantial amount of our management and financial resources in either case.

Confidentiality agreements to which we are party may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. Our trade secrets may also be known without breach of such agreements or may be independently developed by competitors. Our inability to maintain the proprietary nature of our technology and processes could allow our competitors to limit or eliminate any competitive advantages we may have.

Risks Relating to our Financial Condition and Operating Results

We are required to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. Our management previously identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020. This material weakness was still under remediation as of December 31, 2022. If we are unable to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.   

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the rules and regulations of the applicable listing standards of the Nasdaq Global Market. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our consolidated financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could also adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our ordinary shares. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this Annual Report on Form 20-F includes a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting. However, while we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. In connection with achieving compliance with Section 404 within the prescribed period, we engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which was both costly and challenging. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, potentially engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. 

Our management previously identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting primarily related to (i) clearly defined control processes, roles and segregation of duties and sufficient financial reporting and accounting personnel within our business processes to ensure appropriate financial reporting, and (ii) the design and operating effectiveness of IT general controls for information systems that are significant to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. We have worked to remediate these material weaknesses and other deficiencies. We re-designed key processes and included significant measures to develop an effective internal control over financial reporting. In implementing these processes, we have engaged the assistance of external advisors with expertise in these matters. Additionally, we have and continue to train our accounting and finance staff and hired financial reporting personnel to develop and implement appropriate internal controls and reporting procedures. These remediation measures, which continue as of December 31, 2022 have been time consuming and costly and there is no assurance that these initiatives will remediate all issues.

 Moreover, because of the inherent limitations of any control system, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis, or at all. If we are unable to provide reliable and timely financial reports in the future, our business and reputation may be further harmed. Failures in internal control may also cause us to fail to meet reporting obligations, negatively affect investor confidence in our management and the accuracy of our financial statements and disclosures, or result in adverse publicity and concerns from investors, any of which could have a negative effect on the price of our securities, subject us to regulatory investigations and penalties or shareholder litigation, and have a material adverse impact on our financial condition. 

Our financial condition and results of operations and other key metrics are likely to fluctuate on a quarterly basis in future periods, which could cause our results for a particular period to fall below expectations, resulting in a severe decline in the price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants.

Our financial condition and results of operations and other key metrics may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. For example, the amount of product revenue we will recognize in a given period is materially dependent on the volume of installations of our units in that period and the type of financing used by the customer. 

In addition to the other risks described herein, the following factors could also cause our financial condition and results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly basis: 

Fluctuations in our operating results and cash flow could, among other things, give rise to short-term liquidity issues. In addition, our revenue, key operating metrics, and other operating results in future quarters may fall short of the expectations of investors and financial analysts, which could have an adverse effect on the price of the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants.

If we fail to manage our growth effectively, our business and operating results may suffer.

Our current growth and future growth plans may make it difficult for us to efficiently operate our business, challenging us to effectively manage our capital expenditures and control our costs while we expand our operations to increase our revenue. If we experience a significant growth in orders without improvements in automation and efficiency, we may need additional manufacturing capacity and we and some of our suppliers may need additional and capital intensive equipment. Any growth in manufacturing must include a scaling of quality control as the increase in production increases the possible impact of manufacturing defects. In addition, any growth in the volume of sales of our units may outpace our ability to engage sufficient and experienced personnel to manage the higher number of installations and to engage contractors to complete installations on a timely basis and in accordance with our expectations and standards. Any failure to manage our growth effectively could materially and adversely affect our business, our prospects, our operating results, and our financial condition. Our future operating results depend to a large extent on our ability to manage this expansion and growth successfully.

The accounting treatment related to our revenue-generating transactions is expected to be complex, and if we are unable to attract and retain highly qualified accounting personnel to evaluate the accounting implications of our complex or non-routine transactions, our ability to accurately report our financial results may be harmed.

Our revenue-generating transactions include traditional leases, Managed Services Agreements, technology sales and PPA transactions, all of which will be accounted for differently in our financial statements in future years. Many of the accounting rules related to our financing transactions are complex and require experienced and highly skilled personnel to review and interpret the proper accounting treatment with respect thereto. If we are unable to recruit and retain personnel with the required level of expertise to evaluate and accurately classify our revenue-producing transactions, our ability to accurately report our financial results may be harmed.

Changes in or new interpretations of tax law and currency/repatriation controls could impact the determination of our income tax liabilities for a tax year. 

We are subject to the jurisdiction of taxing authorities in all countries in which we operate. The income earned in these various jurisdictions may be taxed on differing bases, including net income actually earned, net income deemed earned, and revenue-based tax withholding. The final determination of our income tax liabilities involves the interpretation of local tax laws, tax treaties and related authorities in each jurisdiction, as well as the significant use of estimates and assumptions regarding the scope of future operations and results achieved and the timing and nature of income earned and expenditures incurred. Changes in the operating environment, including changes in or new interpretations of tax law and currency/repatriation controls, could impact the determination of our income tax liabilities for the tax year.  

Parent expects to experience foreign currency gains and losses. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates can adversely affect its profitability.  

Parent expects to incur foreign currency transaction gains and losses, primarily related to foreign currency exposures that may arise from its financial reporting in euros and holding significant assets in U.S. dollars.

A sizeable portion of Parent’s consolidated operating expenses is in foreign currencies. As a result, Parent will be subject to potential limitations that might be imposed on its ability to reinvest earnings from operations in one country to fund the capital needs of our operations in other countries.

Risks Relating to our Operations 

If Fusion Fuel is unable to attract and retain key employees and hire qualified management, technical, engineering, and sales personnel, our ability to compete and successfully grow our business could be harmed.

We believe that our success and our ability to reach our strategic objectives are highly dependent on the contributions of our key management, technical, engineering, and sales personnel. The loss of members of Fusion Fuel’s senior management team and other key employees, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, could significantly limit Fusion Fuel’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives by delaying the development and introduction of its products and services and negatively impact our business, prospects, and operating results. Our future success also depends on Fusion Fuel’s ability to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled employees, particularly employees with electrical and/or mechanical engineering skills or gas management specialties that would enable Fusion Fuel to effectively deliver its green hydrogen solutions to its clients on time and on budget, as well as client relationship managers with relevant regional and international experience. Competition for these executives in Fusion Fuel’s industry is intense and Fusion Fuel may experience difficulty in recruiting and retaining such individuals. Many of the companies with which Fusion Fuel competes for experienced executives and key personnel also have greater resources than it has. As a result, Fusion Fuel may be unable to attract or retain the green energy industry professionals that are critical to its success, resulting in harm to its key client relationships, loss of key information, expertise or know-how and unanticipated recruitment and retaining costs. Additionally, our ability to achieve revenue growth in the future will depend, in part, on Fusion Fuel’s success in recruiting and retaining client development executives. Such executives may require significant on-boarding time and effort in order to achieve full productivity which may impair business and revenue growth. Additionally, the loss of the services of Fusion Fuel’s senior management could make it more difficult to successfully operate its business and pursue Fusion Fuel’s business goals. In addition, we do not have “key person” life insurance policies covering any of Fusion Fuel’s officers or other key employees.

A breach or failure of our networks or computer or data management systems could damage our operations and our reputation.

Our business is dependent on the security and efficacy of our networks and computer and data management systems. For example, all of our hydrogen production units are connected to and controlled and monitored by our centralized remote monitoring service, and we rely on our internal computer networks for many of the systems we use to operate our business generally. Although we take protective measures and endeavor to modify them as circumstances warrant, the security of our infrastructure, including the network that connects our plants to the remote monitoring service, may be vulnerable to breaches, unauthorized access, misuse, computer viruses, or other malicious code and cyber-attacks that could have a material adverse impact on our business. A breach or failure of our networks or computer or data management systems due to intentional actions such as cyber-attacks, negligence, or other reasons could seriously disrupt our operations or could affect our ability to control or to assess the performance of our units in the field and could result in disruption to our business and potentially legal liability. In addition, if certain of our IT systems failed, our production line might be affected, which could impact our business and operating results. These events, in addition to impacting our financial results, could result in significant costs or reputational consequences.

Parent is a holding company. Its material assets are its cash balances and equity interest in its direct and indirect subsidiaries and it is accordingly dependent upon distributions from them to pay taxes and cover its corporate and other overhead expenses.

We are a holding company and will have no material assets other than our cash balances and equity interest in our direct and indirect subsidiaries. We have no independent means of generating revenue. To the extent that we need funds and a subsidiary is restricted from making such distributions or payment under applicable law or regulation or under the terms of any financing arrangements due to restrictive covenants or otherwise, or are otherwise unable to provide such funds, our liquidity and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Fusion Fuel’s ability to generate revenues is substantially dependent upon it entering into satisfactory hydrogen purchase agreements with third parties.

Fusion Fuel plans to own and operate some of the hydrogen farms it develops and will require a hydrogen off-taker (a buyer) to purchase the green hydrogen produced as an output over the first 10-15 years of the hydrogen projects developed. Notwithstanding that Fusion Fuel has entered into some commercial arrangements to date, there is no guarantee that future satisfactory commercial arrangements with third parties for its green hydrogen solutions will be entered into. Because Fusion Fuel’s business plan is substantially dependent on it entering into hydrogen purchase and technology sale agreements with third parties, if Fusion Fuel is unable to enter into such agreements, its results of operations and financial condition would suffer. 

Fusion Fuel’s activities are subject to a number of development risks, operational hazards, regulatory approvals and other risks which may not be fully covered by insurance, and which could cause cost overruns and delays that could have a material adverse effect on its business, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and prospects.

Siting, development, and delivery of Fusion Fuel’s green hydrogen solution are subject to the risks of delay or cost overruns inherent in any industrial development project resulting from numerous factors, including but not limited to the following: 

Delays beyond the estimated development periods, as well as cost overruns, could increase the cost of completion beyond the amounts that are currently estimated, which could require Parent to obtain additional sources of financing to fund the activities until the proposed project operational (which could cause further delays). The need for more financing may also make the project uneconomic. Delays could also trigger penalties or termination of our agreements with third parties, cause a delay in receipt of revenues projected from the Project or cause a loss of one or more clients. As a result, any significant delay, whatever the cause, could have a material adverse effect on Parent’s business, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and prospects. 

Increases in costs, disruption of supply or shortage of raw materials, including membranes and concentrating lenses, could harm our business.

We may experience increases in the cost or a sustained interruption in the supply or shortage of raw materials, including membranes, concentrating lenses, semiconductors, and integrated circuits. Any such increase or supply interruption could materially impact our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results. We have experienced, and may continue in the future to experience, certain supply chain constraints, including with respect to membranes, concentrating lenses, integrated circuits, and displays. Certain production-ready components such as chipsets and displays may not arrive at our facilities in accordance with our production schedule, which has and may continue to cause delays in testing and qualification of these components, which would in turn create a delay in the availability of our units.

We use various raw materials including aluminum, steel, carbon fiber, non-ferrous metals (such as copper), and cobalt. The prices for these raw materials, as well as other components such as membranes and concentrating lenses, fluctuate depending on market conditions and global demand and could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Any disruption in the supply of components such as membranes, concentrating lenses, semiconductors, or integrated circuits could temporarily disrupt our production until a different supplier is fully qualified. Furthermore, fluctuations or shortages in petroleum and other economic conditions may cause us to experience significant increases in freight charges and raw material costs. Substantial increases in the prices for our raw materials and key components would increase our operating costs and could reduce our margins if the increased costs cannot be recouped through increased hydrogen prices. There can be no assurance that we will be able to recoup increasing costs of raw materials by increasing green hydrogen prices.

We may experience significant delays in the design, manufacture, launch, and financing of our technology, including in the build out of our manufacturing plant, which could harm our business and prospects.

Any delay in the financing, design, manufacture, and launch of our product, including the build-out of our manufacturing plant in Benavente, could materially damage our brand, business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results. Machinery manufacturers often experience delays in the design, manufacture, and commercial release of new and made-to-order products. To the extent the launch of our manufacturing plant is delayed, our growth prospects could be adversely affected as we may fail to grow our market share. Furthermore, we rely on third party suppliers for the provision and development of many of the key components and materials we use. To the extent our suppliers experience any delays in providing us with or developing necessary components, we could experience delays in delivering on our timelines.

If our manufacturing plant in Benavente becomes inoperable, we will be unable to produce our electrolyzers and our business will be harmed.

We expect to produce a large portion of our electrolyzers at our manufacturing plant in Benavente after completion of the plant. Our plant and the equipment we use to manufacture our electrolyzers would be costly to replace and could require substantial lead time to replace and qualify for use. Our plant may be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including earthquakes, flooding, fire and power outages, or by health epidemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which may render it difficult or impossible for us to manufacture our electrolyzers for some period of time. The inability to produce our electrolyzers or the backlog that could develop if our manufacturing plant is inoperable for even a short period of time may result in the loss of customers or harm our reputation. Although we maintain insurance for damage to our property and the disruption of our business, this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. While we maintain the relationship with outsourced production partners, like MagP, a small amount of units potentially would still be delivered, but this would be unable to cover the projected production requirements if Benavente were to become inoperable.

Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, pandemics, and other natural catastrophic events and to interruption by man-made problems such as technogenic catastrophic events, computer viruses or terrorism.

Fusion Fuel’s facilities and operations are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, floods, pandemics, power losses, natural gas explosions, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins and similar events. For example, a significant natural disaster, such as a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami or flood, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial conditions, and our insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for losses that may occur. In addition, acts of terrorism, which may be targeted at power stations as crucial elements of a country’s infrastructure, could cause disruptions in Fusion Fuel’s or its clients’ business or the economy as a whole. Green hydrogen energy transport IT infrastructure may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins, denial-of-service attacks and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with Fusion Fuel’s or its clients’ IT systems, which could lead to interruptions, delays and loss of critical data. We may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in the event such a disaster should occur. As Fusion Fuel relies heavily on physical infrastructure, computer and communications systems to conduct its business, such disruptions could negatively impact its ability to run its business and either directly or indirectly disrupt its clients’ or supplier’s businesses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Cybersecurity risks and threats could adversely affect our business.

We rely heavily on information technology networks and systems, including the Internet, to process, transmit and store electronic and financial information and to manage a variety of business processes and activities, including communication with our production, manufacturing, financial, logistics, sales, marketing and administrative functions. Additionally, we collect and store data that is sensitive to us and to third parties. Operating these information technology networks and systems and processing and maintaining this data, in a secure manner, are critical to our business operations and strategy. We depend on our information technology infrastructure to communicate internally and externally with employees, customers, suppliers and others. We also use information technology networks and systems to comply with regulatory, legal and tax requirements and to operate our hydrogen farms. These information technology systems, many of which are managed by third parties, may be susceptible to damage, disruptions or shutdowns due to failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software databases or components thereof, power outages, hardware failures, computer viruses, attacks by computer hackers or other cybersecurity risks, telecommunication failures, user errors, natural disasters, terrorist attacks or other catastrophic events. If any of our significant information technology systems suffer severe damage, disruption or shutdown, and our disaster recovery and business continuity plans do not effectively resolve the issues in a timely manner, our product sales, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected, and we could experience delays in reporting our financial results, or our hydrogen farm operations may be disrupted, exposing us to performance penalties under our contracts with customers and potential loss of our intellectual property.  

In addition, information technology security threats — from user error to cybersecurity attacks designed to gain unauthorized access to our systems, networks and data — are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Cybersecurity attacks may range from random attempts to coordinated and targeted attacks, including sophisticated computer crime and advanced persistent threats. In addition, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased prevalence of employees working from home may exacerbate the aforementioned cybersecurity risks. These threats pose a risk to the security of our systems and networks and the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data.

Cybersecurity attacks could also include attacks targeting customer data or the security, integrity and/or reliability of the hardware and software installed in our products. We have experienced, and may continue  to experience in the future, cybersecurity attacks that have resulted in unauthorized parties gaining access to our information technology systems and networks. However, to date, no cybersecurity attack has resulted in any material loss of data, interrupted our day-to-day operations or had a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. While we actively manage information technology security risks within our control, there can be no assurance that such actions will be sufficient to mitigate all potential risks to our systems, networks and data. In addition to the direct potential financial risk as we continue to build, own and operate generation assets, other potential consequences of a material cybersecurity attack include reputational damage, litigation with third parties, disruption to systems, unauthorized release of confidential or otherwise protected information, corruption of data, diminution in the value of our investment in research, development and engineering, and increased cybersecurity protection and remediation costs, which in turn could adversely affect our competitiveness, results of operations and financial condition. The amount of insurance coverage we maintain may be inadequate to cover claims or liabilities relating to a cybersecurity attack.

Additionally, the legal and regulatory environment surrounding information security and privacy in the U.S. and international jurisdictions is constantly evolving. Violation or non-compliance with any of these laws or regulations, contractual requirements relating to data security and privacy, or our own privacy and security policies, either intentionally or unintentionally, or through the acts of intermediaries could have a material adverse effect on our brand, reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations, as well as subject us to significant fines, litigation losses, third-party damages and other liabilities.

If Fusion Fuel is unable to keep pace with technology developments in its industry, this could adversely affect its ability to win, maintain and grow market share.

The alternative energy industry is subject to the introduction of new technologies, some of which may be subject to patent or other intellectual property protections. We intend to introduce and integrate new technologies and procedures used by us and our customers; however, we cannot be certain that we will be able to develop and implement new technologies or services on a timely basis or at an acceptable cost. The alternative energy industry is highly competitive and dominated by a few large players that have resources to invest in new technologies. Our ability to continually provide competitive technology, solutions and services can impact our ability to win, maintain and grow our market share and to negotiate acceptable commercial terms with our potential clients. If we are unable to acquire or develop competitive technology or deliver it to our clients in a timely and cost-competitive manner in the markets we serve, it could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our growth strategy is aggressive and includes operating in more territories.

Our growth plans include offering standard products to more territories. As such, there are risks of compliance, contract risk, health and safety and managing a global operation. The demand for electrolyzer products generating hydrogen exceeds the Group's ability to match supply, potentially granting an advantage to other competitors who have larger supply capacity or who can ramp up faster. As the business increases its capacity and delivery of products, it will have a greater reliance on third parties for installation and maintenance of critical components, including a reliance on the expertise of its partners. Poor selection / management of suppliers & sub-contractors could lead to supply of sub-standard products or services. This could also lead to contractual risk, health and safety risk and reputational risk for if those suppliers do not have appropriate and effective compliance processes in place to manage those.

Our growth strategies depend in part on our ability to further penetrate markets outside Europe, particularly in markets such as Morocco, Australia, the United States and the Middle East, and involve significantly larger and more complex projects, including ammonia and large-scale hydrogen projects, some in regions where there is the potential for significant economic and political disruptions. We are actively investing large amounts of capital and other resources, in some cases through joint ventures, in developing markets, which we believe to have high growth potential. Our operations in these markets may be subject to greater risks than those faced by our operations in mature economies, including political and economic instability, project delay or abandonment due to unanticipated government actions, inadequate investment in infrastructure, undeveloped property rights and legal systems, unfamiliar regulatory environments, relationships with local partners, language and cultural differences and increased difficulty recruiting, training and retaining qualified employees. In addition, our properties and contracts in these locations may be subject to seizure and cancellation, respectively, without full compensation for loss. Successful operation of facilities or execution of projects may be disrupted by civil unrest, acts of war, nationalization efforts, sabotage or terrorism, and other local security concerns. Such concerns may require us to incur greater costs for security or require us to shut down operations for a period.

Furthermore, because a significant portion of our revenue is expected to be generated from sales outside Europe, we are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Our business is primarily exposed to translational currency risk as the results of our foreign operations are translated into Euro at current exchange rates throughout the fiscal period.

We are subject to extensive government regulation in the jurisdictions in which we do business. Regulations addressing, among other things, import/export restrictions, anti-bribery and corruption, and taxes, can negatively impact our financial condition, results of operation, and cash flows.

We are subject to government regulation in Europe and in the foreign jurisdictions where we conduct business. The application of laws and regulations to our business is sometimes unclear. Compliance with laws and regulations may involve significant costs or require changes in business practices that could result in reduced profitability. If there is a determination that we have failed to comply with applicable laws or regulations, we may be subject to penalties or sanctions that could adversely impact our reputation and financial results. Compliance with changes in laws or regulations can result in increased operating costs and require additional, unplanned capital expenditures. Export controls or other regulatory restrictions could prevent us from shipping our products to and from some markets or increase the cost of doing so. Changes in tax laws and regulations and international tax treaties could affect the financial results of our businesses. Increasingly aggressive enforcement of anti-bribery and anti-corruption requirements could subject us to criminal or civil sanctions if a violation is deemed to have occurred. Such restrictions may provide a competitive advantage to competitors who are not subject to comparable restrictions or prevent us from taking advantage of growth opportunities.

Parent’s failure to comply with complex U.S. and foreign laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on its operations.

We are subject to complex U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, and various other anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. We may also be subject to trade control regulations and trade sanctions laws that restrict the movement of certain goods to, and certain operations in, various countries or with certain persons. The internal controls, policies and procedures, and employee training and compliance programs we expect to implement to deter prohibited practices may not be effective in preventing employees, contractors or agents from violating or circumventing such internal policies or violating applicable laws and regulations. Any determination that we have violated or are responsible for violations of anti-bribery, trade control, trade sanctions or anti-corruption laws could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and may result in fines and penalties, administrative remedies or restrictions on business conduct, and could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and our business.

We are subject to an increasing sustainability focus.

The increasing environmental, social and governance requirements from governments and customers as well as potential financing restrictions from governments on carbon emitting processes could result in additional supply chain and operational costs. Additionally, business involvement in sensitive environmental, social or governance activities might be negatively perceived and trigger adverse media attention. This could lead to reputational damage and have an impact on achieving our business goals.

Our business and territories that we operate in are subject to changes of regulations, laws and policies.

As a growing company with operations commencing in new territories, we are exposed to various product- and country-related regulations, laws and policies influencing our business activities and processes. We monitor the political and regulatory landscape in all our key markets to anticipate potential problem areas, with the aim of quickly adjusting our business activities and processes to reflect the changed conditions. However, any changes in regulations, laws and policies could adversely affect our business activities and processes as well as our financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Relating to Irish Law

A transfer of Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants, other than one effected by means of the transfer of book-entry interests in the Depositary Trust Company, may be subject to Irish stamp duty.

The Irish Revenue Commissioners have confirmed that transfers of Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants effected by means of the transfer of book entry interests in the Depositary Trust Company (“DTC”) will not be subject to Irish stamp duty. It is anticipated that the majority of Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants will be traded through DTC by brokers who hold such shares on behalf of customers. However, if you hold your Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants directly rather than beneficially through DTC, any transfer of your Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants could be subject to Irish stamp duty. Payment of Irish stamp duty is generally a legal obligation of the transferee. The potential for stamp duty could adversely affect the price of your securities. 

If the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants are not eligible for deposit and clearing within the facilities of DTC, then transactions in the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants may be disrupted.

The facilities of DTC are a widely-used mechanism that allow for rapid electronic transfers of securities between the participants in the DTC system, which include many large banks and brokerage firms. The Class A Ordinary Shares and the Warrants are eligible for deposit and clearing within the DTC system. On December 10, 2020, we entered into arrangements with DTC whereby we agreed to indemnify DTC for any Irish stamp duty that may be assessed upon it as a result of its service as a depository and clearing agency for the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants and, in consideration for such indemnification, DTC agreed to accept the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants for deposit and clearing within its facilities. 

However, although DTC has initially accepted the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants, it generally will have discretion to cease to act as a depository and clearing agency for the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants. If DTC determines at any time that the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants are not eligible for continued deposit and clearance within its facilities, then we believe the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants would not be eligible for continued listing on a U.S. securities exchange and trading in the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants would be disrupted. While we would pursue alternative arrangements to preserve our listing and maintain trading, any such disruption could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants.

An investment in the Class A Ordinary Shares may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences.

An investment in the Class A Ordinary Shares may result in uncertain U.S. federal income tax consequences. See “Anticipated Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences to U.S. Holders of Parent Securities”. Prospective investors are urged to consult their tax advisors with respect to these and other tax consequences when purchasing, holding and disposing of the Class A Ordinary Shares. 

In certain limited circumstances, dividends paid by Parent may be subject to Irish dividend withholding tax.

Parent does not intend to pay dividends on its capital stock in the foreseeable future. If Parent were to declare and pay dividends, in certain limited circumstances, dividend withholding tax (currently at a rate of 25%) may arise in respect of dividends paid on the Class A Ordinary Shares. A number of exemptions from dividend withholding tax exist such that shareholders resident in the U.S. and other exempt countries may be entitled to exemptions from dividend withholding tax. 

The Irish Revenue Commissioners have confirmed that shareholders resident in the U.S. that hold their Class A Ordinary Shares through DTC will not be subject to dividend withholding tax, provided the addressees of the beneficial owners of such Class A Ordinary Shares in the records of the brokers holding such Class A Ordinary Shares are recorded as being in the U.S. (and such brokers have further transmitted the relevant information to a qualifying intermediary appointed by Parent). However, other holders of Class A Ordinary Shares may be subject to dividend withholding tax, which could adversely affect the price of their Class A Ordinary Shares.

Dividends received by Irish residents and certain other shareholders may be subject to Irish income tax.

Shareholders entitled to an exemption from Irish dividend withholding tax on dividends received from Parent will not be subject to Irish income tax in respect of those dividends unless they have some connection with Ireland other than their shareholding in Parent (for example, they are resident in Ireland). Shareholders who receive dividends subject to Irish dividend withholding tax will generally have no further liability to Irish income tax on those dividends. 

Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants received by means of a gift or inheritance could be subject to Irish capital acquisitions tax.

Irish capital acquisitions tax (“CAT”) could apply to a gift or inheritance of Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants irrespective of the place of residence, ordinary residence or domicile of the parties. This is because Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants will be regarded as property situated in Ireland. The person who receives the gift or inheritance has primary liability for CAT. Gifts and inheritances passing between spouses are exempt from CAT. Children have a tax-free threshold of €335,000 in respect of taxable gifts or inheritances received from their parents.

It is recommended that each shareholder consult his or her own tax advisor as to the tax consequences of holding Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants in, and receiving distributions from, Parent.

Provisions in our Memorandum and Articles of Association and under Irish law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, may limit attempts by our shareholders to replace or remove our management, may limit shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with directors, officers, or employees, and may limit the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants.

Provisions in our Memorandum and Articles of Association (“M&A”) may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. The M&A includes provisions that: 

As an Irish public limited company, certain capital structure decisions regarding Parent will require the approval of the shareholders of Parent, which may limit Parent’s flexibility to manage its capital structure. 

Irish law generally provides that a board of directors may allot and issue shares (or rights to subscribe for or convert into shares) if authorized to do so by a company’s constitution or by an ordinary resolution. Such authorization may be granted for up to the maximum of a company’s authorized but unissued share capital and for a maximum period of five years, at which point it must be renewed by another ordinary resolution. Parent’s M&A authorizes the board of directors of Parent to allot shares up to the maximum of Parent’s authorized but unissued share capital until December 31, 2023. This authorization will need to be renewed by ordinary resolution upon its expiration and at periodic intervals thereafter. Under Irish law, an allotment authority may be given for up to five years at each renewal, but governance considerations may result in renewals for shorter periods or for less than the maximum permitted number of shares being sought or approved.

While Irish law also generally provides shareholders with pre-emptive rights when new shares are issued for cash, it is possible for Parent’s M&A, or for shareholders of Parent in a general meeting, to exclude such pre-emptive rights. Parent’s M&A excludes pre-emptive rights until December 31, 2023. This exclusion will need to be renewed by special resolution upon its expiration and at periodic intervals thereafter. Under Irish law, a disapplication of pre-emption rights may be authorized for up to five years at each renewal, but governance considerations may result in renewals for shorter periods or for less than the maximum permitted number of unissued shares being sought or approved. 

Attempted takeovers of Parent will be subject to the Irish Takeover Rules and will be under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Irish Takeover Panel. Accordingly, Parent’s board of directors may be limited by the Irish Takeover Rules in its ability to defend an unsolicited takeover attempt.

Due to the listing of the Class A Ordinary Shares on Nasdaq, Parent is subject to the Irish Takeover Panel Act, 1997, Irish Takeover Rules 2013 (“Irish Takeover Rules”), under which Parent is not be permitted to take certain actions that might “frustrate” an offer for Class A Ordinary Shares once the board of directors has received an offer, or has reason to believe an offer is or may be imminent, without the approval of more than 50% of shareholders entitled to vote at a general meeting of our shareholders or the consent of the Irish Takeover Panel. This could limit the ability of Parent’s board of directors to take defensive actions even if it believes that such defensive actions would be in our best interests or the best interests of our shareholders. 

The Irish Takeover Rules are administered by the Irish Takeover Panel, which has supervisory jurisdiction over such transactions. Among other matters, the Irish Takeover Rules operate to ensure that no offer is frustrated or unfairly prejudiced and, in situations involving multiple bidders, that there is a level playing field. For example, pursuant to the Irish Takeover Rules, the board of directors of Parent will not be permitted, without shareholder approval, to take certain actions which might frustrate an offer for Parent Shares once the board of directors of Parent has received an approach that might lead to an offer or has reason to believe that an offer is, or may be, imminent.

Under the Irish Takeover Rules, if an acquisition of Class A Ordinary Shares and Class B Ordinary Shares were to increase the aggregate holdings of the acquirer (together with its concert parties) to 30% or more of the voting rights of Parent, such acquirer and, in certain circumstances, its concert parties would be required (except with the consent of the Irish Takeover Panel) to make an offer for the outstanding Class A Ordinary Shares and Class B Ordinary Shares at a price not less than the highest price paid by such acquirer or its concert parties for Parent Shares during the previous 12 months. This requirement would also be triggered by the acquisition of Class A Ordinary Shares and Class B Ordinary Shares by any person holding (together with its concert parties) between 30% and 50% of the voting rights of Parent if the effect of such acquisition were to increase that person’s voting rights by 0.05% within a 12-month period.

Anti-takeover provisions in Parent’s M&A could make an acquisition of Parent more difficult. Parent’s M&A contains provisions that may delay or prevent a change of control, discourage bids at a premium over the market price of Class A Ordinary Shares, adversely affect the market price of Class A Ordinary Shares, and adversely affect the voting and other rights of shareholders of Parent. These provisions include: (i) permitting the board of directors of Parent to issue preference shares without the approval of Parent’s shareholders, with such rights, preferences and privileges as they may designate; and (ii) allowing the board of directors of Parent to adopt a shareholder rights plan upon such terms and conditions as it deems expedient in the interests of Parent. 

The operation of the Irish Takeover Rules may affect the ability of certain parties to acquire Class A Ordinary Shares.

Under the Irish Takeover Rules if an acquisition of ordinary shares were to increase the aggregate holding of the acquirer and its concert parties to ordinary shares that represent 30% or more of the voting rights of Parent, the acquirer and, in certain circumstances, its concert parties would be required (except with the consent of the Irish Takeover Panel) to make an offer for the outstanding ordinary shares at a price not less than the highest price paid for the ordinary shares by the acquirer or its concert parties during the previous 12 months. This requirement would also be triggered by an acquisition of ordinary shares by a person holding (together with its concert parties) ordinary shares that represent between 30% and 50% of the voting rights in Parent if the effect of such acquisition were to increase that person’s percentage of the voting rights by 0.05% within a 12-month period. Under the Irish Takeover Rules, certain separate concert parties will be presumed to be acting in concert. The board of directors of Parent and their relevant family members, related trusts and “controlled companies” are presumed to be acting in concert with any corporate shareholder who hold 20% or more of Parent. 

The application of these presumptions may result in restrictions upon the ability of any of the concert parties and/or members of Parent’s board of directors to acquire more of our securities, including under the terms of any executive incentive arrangements. Accordingly, the application of the Irish Takeover Rules may frustrate the ability of certain of our shareholders and directors to acquire our ordinary shares. 

Investors may face difficulties in protecting their interests, and their ability to protect their rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited, because Parent is formed under Irish law.

Parent is a company formed under the laws of Ireland, all of its properties are located outside of the United States, a majority of our directors and officers reside outside of the United States and all our assets are and are likely in the future to be located outside of the United States. As a result, it may be difficult, or in some cases not possible, for investors in the United States to enforce their legal rights against us, to effect service of process upon our directors or officers or to enforce judgements of United States courts predicated upon civil liabilities and criminal penalties on our directors under United States laws. 

Our corporate affairs will be governed by our M&A, the Irish Companies Act and the common law of Ireland. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Irish law are governed by the Irish Companies Act and the common law of Ireland. The rights of the Parent shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Irish law may not be as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, Ireland has a less developed body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and some states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. 

The jurisdiction and choice of law clauses set forth in the Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement, and Parent’s status as an Irish company, may have the effect of limiting a warrant holder’s ability to effectively pursue its legal rights against Parent in any United States court.

The Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement provides that disputes arising under the Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement are governed by New York law and that Parent consents to jurisdiction in courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. This provision may limit the ability of warrant holders to bring a claim against Parent other than in courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds more favorable for disputes under the Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement. The Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement, however, also expressly makes clear that this choice of law and forum provision shall not restrict a warrant holder from bringing a claim under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act in any federal or state court having jurisdiction over such claim. To the extent that any such claims may be based upon federal law claims, Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Irrespective of the ability of a warrant holder to bring an action in any such forum, due to the fact that Parent is an Irish company with all of its properties located outside of the United States, if a warrant holder brings a claim against Parent under the Amended and Restated Warrant Agreement, the Securities Act or Exchange Act, or otherwise, such warrant holder may have difficulty pursuing its legal rights against Parent in any United States courts having jurisdiction over any such claims. 

Parent may be classified as a passive foreign investment company for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors in Parent’s securities.

Based on the current value of Parent’s assets and the composition of Parent’s potential income streams, assets and operations, we do not believe Parent classifies as a “passive foreign investment company,” or PFIC, for the taxable year ended on December 31, 2022, and that it will not classify as a PFIC for 2022 either. However, the application of the PFIC rules is subject to uncertainty in several respects and furthermore we cannot assure you that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the IRS, will not take a contrary position. Furthermore, a separate determination must be made after the close of each taxable year as to whether Parent is a PFIC for that year. Accordingly, notwithstanding the current expectation that we will not be classified as a PFIC, we cannot assure you that we have not been a PFIC or that we will not be a PFIC for our current taxable year or any future taxable year. A non-US company will be considered a PFIC for any taxable year if (i) at least 75% of its gross income is passive income (including interest income), or (ii) at least 50% of the value of its assets (based on an average of the quarterly values of the assets during a taxable year) is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income. If we were to be ultimately classified as a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. holder holds the Class A Ordinary Shares, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences could apply to such U.S. holder, including (i) the treatment of all or a portion of any gain on disposition of the Class A Ordinary Shares as ordinary income, (ii) the application of a deferred interest charge on such gain and the receipt of certain dividends and (iii) the obligation to comply with certain reporting requirements.

Resales of our Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants, or the perception that such resales might occur, may cause the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants to drop significantly, even if Fusion Fuel’s business is doing well.

As of April 28, 2023 we have an aggregate of 14,532,499 Class A Ordinary Shares and 8,869,633 Warrants outstanding.   While a portion of such shares and warrants are subject to transfer restrictions described elsewhere in this Annual Report, upon expiration of the applicable lock-up periods, large amounts of Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants may be sold in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. Such sales, or the perception in the public markets that such sales will occur, could have the effect of increasing the volatility in the trading price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or the Warrants or putting significant downward pressure on the price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or the Warrants.

Downward pressure on the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or the Warrants that likely will result from sales of Class A Ordinary Shares could encourage short sales of Class A Ordinary Shares and/or the Warrants by market participants. Generally, short selling means selling a security, contract or commodity not owned by the seller. The seller is committed to eventually purchase the financial instrument previously sold. Short sales are used to capitalize on an expected decline in the security’s price. Short sales of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants could have a tendency to depress the price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or the Warrants, respectively, which could further increase the potential for short sales.

We also may issue additional Class A Ordinary Shares, Warrants, or other securities to finance our operations. We cannot predict the size of future issuances of Class A Ordinary Shares, Warrants, or other securities or the effect, if any, that future issuances and sales of shares of such securities will have on the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares or the Warrants. Sales of substantial amounts of Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants, or the perception that such sales could occur, may adversely affect prevailing market prices of Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants. 

A substantial number of our Class A Ordinary Shares may be issued upon the exercise of Warrants and options which could adversely affect the price of our Class A Ordinary Shares.

We have an aggregate of 8,869,633 Warrants outstanding. Each Warrant is exercisable for one Class A Ordinary Share at a price of $11.50 per share. In addition, we have options to purchase an aggregate of 2,128,554 Class A Ordinary Shares outstanding. If all of the Warrants and options are exercised for cash, we would be required to issue up to 10,998,187 Class A Ordinary Shares, or approximately 76% of our Class A Ordinary Shares outstanding as of April 28, 2023. The warrant and option holders will likely exercise such securities only at a time when it is economically beneficial to do so. Accordingly, the exercise of these securities will dilute our other equity holders and may adversely affect the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares.

We may issue additional Class A Ordinary Shares or other equity securities without seeking shareholder approval, which would dilute your ownership interests and may depress the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares.

An aggregate of 8,869,633 Warrants is outstanding. In addition, we had 2,245,449 Class A ordinary shares available for issuance, and not subject to outstanding awards, under our Plan. Further, we may issue additional Class A ordinary shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future for any reason or in connection with, among other things, future acquisitions, the redemption of outstanding Warrants, or repayment of outstanding indebtedness, without shareholder approval, in a number of circumstances. 

Our issuance of additional Class A Ordinary Shares or other equity securities of equal or senior rank would have the following effects:

If the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants are de-listed from Nasdaq, we could face significant material adverse consequences.

We may be unable to maintain the listing of our Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants on in the future. If Nasdaq delists our Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

The trading price of the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants may be volatile, and holders of the Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants could incur substantial losses. 

The stock market in general has experienced extreme volatility in the wake of recent public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political turmoil such as the war in Ukraine that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, our shareholders may not be able to sell their Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants at or above the price paid for such securities. The market price for the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants may be influenced by many factors, including the factors discussed elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section and:

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the market price of the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants and trading volume could decline.

The market price for the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If industry analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price for the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants would be negatively affected. In addition, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the Class A Ordinary Share and/or Warrant price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants could decrease, which might cause the Class A Ordinary Share and/or Warrant price and trading volume to decline. 

An active trading market of the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants may not be sustained, and investors may not be able to resell their Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants at or above the price for which they purchased such securities.

An active trading market for the Class A Ordinary Shares and Warrants may not be sustained. In the absence of an active trading market for the Class A Ordinary Shares and/or Warrants, investors may not be able to sell their Class A Ordinary Shares or Warrants, respectively, at or above the price they paid at the time that they would like to sell. In addition, an inactive market may impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares or equity securities and may impair our ability to acquire business partners by using the Class A Ordinary Shares as consideration, which, in turn, could harm our business. 

Because we currently do not have plans to pay cash dividends on the Class A Ordinary Shares, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell your Class A Ordinary Shares for a price greater than that which you paid.

We currently do not expect to pay any cash dividends on Class A Ordinary Shares. Any future determination to pay cash dividends or other distributions on Class A Ordinary Shares will be at the discretion of the board of directors and will be dependent on our earnings, financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, and contractual, regulatory and other restrictions, including restrictions contained in the agreements governing any existing and future outstanding indebtedness we or our subsidiaries incur, on the payment of dividends by our subsidiaries to us, and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in the Class A Ordinary Shares unless you sell the Class A Ordinary Shares for a price greater than that which you paid for them.

General Risks

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of rules under the Exchange Act, we are permitted to file less information with the SEC than domestic companies, and we will be permitted to follow home country practice in lieu of the listing requirements of Nasdaq, subject to certain exceptions. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning us than there is for issuers that are not foreign private issuers.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act, including certain disclosure and procedural requirements applicable to proxy solicitations under Section 14 of the Exchange Act, our board of directors, officers and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act, and we are not required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act but are not foreign private issuers. Foreign private issuers are also not required to comply with Regulation FD, which restricts the selective disclosure of material non-public information. Accordingly, there may be less publicly available information concerning us than there is for companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act but are not foreign private issuers, and such information may not be provided as promptly as it is provided by such companies. 

In addition, certain information may be provided by us in accordance with Irish law, which may differ in substance or timing from such disclosure requirements under the Exchange Act. As a foreign private issuer, under Nasdaq rules we are subject to less stringent corporate governance requirements. Subject to certain exceptions, the rules of Nasdaq permit a foreign private issuer to follow its home country practice in lieu of certain of the listing requirements of Nasdaq. We have elected to follow corporate governance practices under Irish law in lieu of the requirements of Nasdaq Rule 5635(c) and 5635(d)(2), which require companies to obtain shareholder approval prior to the issuance of securities to officers, directors, employees or consultants under certain circumstances and when it seeks to engage in a transaction, other than a public offering, involving the sale, issuance or potential issuance of ordinary shares, which alone or together with sales by officers, directors or substantial shareholders of the company, equals 20% or more of the ordinary shares or 20% or more of the voting power outstanding before the issuance at a price below a certain price indicated in such Nasdaq Rule. Irish law and generally accepted business practices in Ireland do not require that shareholders approve such transactions. Accordingly, shareholder approval is not required for these types of transactions by Parent.

Parent is an “emerging growth company” and it cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make the Class A Ordinary Shares less attractive to investors.

Parent is an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. As an emerging growth company, Parent is not required to obtain auditor attestation of its reporting on internal control over financial reporting, has reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and is not required to hold non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation. This allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of these accounting standards until they would otherwise apply to private companies. Parent has elected to take advantage of such extended transition period. Parent cannot predict whether investors will find the Class A Ordinary Shares to be less attractive as a result of its reliance on these exemptions. If some investors find the Class A Ordinary Shares to be less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the Class A Ordinary Shares and the price of the Class A Ordinary Shares may be more volatile.

Parent will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of: (i) the end of the fiscal year in which Parent has total annual gross revenue of $1.23 billion; (ii) the last day of Parent’s fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date on which HL consummated its initial public offering; (iii) the date on which Parent issues more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the preceding three-year period; or (iv) the end of the fiscal year in which the market value of the Parent Ordinary Shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter.

Further, there is no guarantee that the exemptions available to Parent under the JOBS Act will result in significant savings. To the extent that Parent chooses not to use exemptions from various reporting requirements under the JOBS Act, it will incur additional compliance costs, which may impact Parent’s financial condition. 

We incur significant costs and devote substantial management time as a result of being subject to reporting requirements in the United States, which may adversely affect the operating results of Parent in the future.

As a company subject to reporting requirements in the United States, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that Parent would not have incurred as a private Irish company. For example, Parent is subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and is required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Compliance with these requirements increases Parent’s legal and financial compliance costs and makes some activities more time consuming and costly, while also diverting management attention. In particular, Parent expects to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which will increase when it is no longer an emerging growth company as defined by the JOBS Act. 

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud.

Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable and accurate financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. Our compliance with the annual internal control report requirement depends on the effectiveness of our financial reporting and data systems and controls. Inferior internal controls increase the possibility of errors and could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock and our access to capital. 

In addition, our internal control systems rely on people trained in the execution of the controls. Loss of these people or our inability to replace them with similarly skilled and trained individuals or new processes in a timely manner could adversely impact our internal control mechanisms.

Future changes in U.S. and foreign tax laws could adversely affect us.

The U.S. Congress, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and government agencies in jurisdictions where we and our affiliates do business have focused on issues related to the taxation of multinational corporations. In particular, specific attention has been paid to “base erosion and profit shifting”, where payments are made between affiliates from a jurisdiction with high tax rates to a jurisdiction with lower tax rates. As a result, the tax laws in Ireland, Portugal and other countries in which we and our affiliates do business could change on a prospective or retroactive basis, and any such change could adversely affect us.

ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

A. History and Development of the Company  

Parent was incorporated in Ireland on April 3, 2020 as a private limited company under the name Dolya Holdco 3 Limited. On July 14, 2020, Parent effected a name change to Fusion Fuel Green Limited. On October 2, 2020, Parent converted into a public limited company incorporated in Ireland under the name “Fusion Fuel Green PLC.”

On December 10, 2020, Parent completed a business combination pursuant to that certain Amended and Restated Business Combination Agreement (“Business Combination Agreement”), which Parent entered into on August 25, 2020, with HL, Fusion Welcome – Fuel, S.A., a public limited company domiciled in Portugal, sociedade anónima (now known as Fusion Fuel Portugal, S.A., “Fusion Fuel Portugal”), Fusion Fuel Atlantic Limited, a British Virgin Islands business company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent (“Merger Sub”), and the shareholders of Fusion Fuel Portugal (“Fusion Fuel Shareholders”). Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, (i) Merger Sub merged with and into HL (the “Merger”), with HL being the surviving entity of the Merger and becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent, and (ii) Parent acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Fusion Fuel Portugal (the “Share Exchange,” and together with the Merger, the “Transactions”), resulting in Fusion Fuel Portugal and HL becoming wholly-owned subsidiaries of Parent and the securityholders of Fusion Fuel Portugal and HL becoming securityholders of Parent. Immediately following the closing of the Transactions, Parent consummated the closing of a series of subscription agreements with accredited investors (“PIPE Investors”) for the sale in a private placement of 2,450,000 Class A ordinary shares of Parent (“Class A Ordinary Shares”) at a price of $10.25 per share for gross proceeds to Parent of approximately $25.1 million (the “PIPE”).

Following the Transactions, HL was dissolved. On April 21, 2021, we formed our U.S. subsidiary, Fusion Fuel USA, Inc. (“Fusion Fuel USA”).

Prior to the Transactions, Fusion Fuel Portugal was a subsidiary of Negordy Investments, S.A. (formerly Fusion Welcome) (“Negordy”), a European leader in concentrated photovoltaic technology (“CPV”) technology. Since 2008, Negordy and its related parties, have installed over 20 solar CPV plants throughout Europe and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, and over time became the leading CPV solar solution provider in Europe. The management team of Negordy also developed relationships with key stakeholders throughout the energy, regulatory, and commercial spheres. Recognizing the potential of green hydrogen, the management team of Negordy launched a subsidiary, Fusion Fuel Portugal, in July 2018, to begin R&D of an alternative to Brown and Grey Hydrogen, with the goal of minimizing the associated carbon footprint, and to provide a market solution for meeting emissions reduction targets.

Starting with the principle of recovering waste heat from the solar energy conversion process, Fusion Fuel Portugal began to explore possibilities to use this energy to generate green hydrogen. Fusion Fuel Portugal’s technology was independently validated by the technology department from Lisbon’s Instituto Superior de Técnico (the “University”). The University produced a study commissioned by GALP, a major Portuguese oil and gas multi-national company. The purpose of the study was to perform a technological assessment of the viability of Fusion Fuel Portugal’s Hydrogen Generator. The study found that the HEVO-Solar’s system presented a “differentiating advantage” with its technology as it has the typical characteristics of a conventional PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) electrolyzer, but with a reduced size that is compact and integrated in a concentrator photovoltaic system. The reduced size of the electrolyzer allows for thermal and electrical integration through solar concentration directly in the cell. In other similar technologies, the concentrator photovoltaic system is not conducted within the cell. The University study acknowledges that the HEVO-Solar was built with all of the appropriate materials available on the market and that the integration of the solar photovoltaic concentration system with the HEVO (formerly referred to as the DC-PEHG) electrolyzer seems well achieved. Fusion Fuel Portugal did not commission or fund any portion of this study, nor did Fusion Fuel Portugal have any role in selecting the professor that conducted the study, and has obtained permission to use the results of the study.

Fusion Fuel is bringing its proprietary technology to the market after extensive production research and testing, including external green hydrogen purity testing by LAQV Requimte Laboratory to confirm it can be used for all major industrial purposes and targeted key markets. Fusion Fuel Portugal has developed its first green hydrogen plant in Evora, Portugal (“Evora”). In addition, Fusion Fuel has begun to seek to expand its business in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (“MENA”) region and the United States, as also described further below in this section.

Evora

Fusion Fuel’s first solar-to-green hydrogen plant, H2Evora, consists of 15 HEVO-Solar generators with the latest generation of Fusion Fuel’s HEVO micro-electrolyzer. H2Evora also includes state-of-the-art hydrogen purification, compression, and storage systems, as well as a Ballard Power Systems fuel cell to convert the green hydrogen into electricity to be fed into the national grid.

Installation at H2Evora is complete and our HEVO-Solar generators have been operating since the fourth quarter of 2021. The facility received its long-awaited commissioning in the third quarter of 2022. This was not only the first solar-to-hydrogen plant in Iberia, but also the first plant producing and using green hydrogen as an energy storage medium all in one integrated facility.

Benavente

In the second quarter of 2021, we purchased a 14,000m³ factory in Benavente, Portugal for €5.0 million, inclusive of taxes. The renovations of the facility in Benavente, which began in late 2021, were completed in the first quarter of 2022.

The second quarter marked the start of the first production lines at our Benavente facility, which will ramp up to around 500 MW over the coming years. It is a major milestone for Fusion Fuel and for Iberia, as the first industrial electrolyzer production to go live across Portugal and Spain. Our vision for Benavente is for it to be an industry-leading, state-of-the-art electrolyzer manufacturing facility, using automation and robotics wherever possible to improve the efficiency of production. In line with our efforts to be a leading clean energy company, we partnered with Helexia to instal 1 MW of solar power on the roof of Benavente, which will not only reduce our carbon footprint, but will also lower our production costs given the exceedingly high cost of energy today.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, we announced we completed our planned sale and leaseback of the Benavente electrolyzer manufacturing factory to CORUM Eurion, an ESG certified real estate investment fund managed by CORUM Asset Management. The €9.3 million transaction generated net proceeds of nearly €7.5 million after certain holdbacks and deposits for the lease-back contract. The proceeds will be used by us to continue the buildout of the Benavente factory, fund the development of Fusion Fuel owned projects and HEVO-Chain technology, as well as for general corporate purposes.

Other Portugal Market Operations and Partnerships

In the first quarter of 2022, the Portuguese government announced the passage of Decree-Law 30-A/2022, which approved a set of measures aimed at accelerating the energy transition by simplifying the procedures for the installation and start-up of renewable energy projects, including green hydrogen production. While the larger projects we have under development are currently not expected to be impacted by this legislation, we believe it will significantly accelerate the permitting process for some of the small-scale projects we are developing, such as refueling stations. Due to the modular nature of our HEVO based solutions and our unique ability to develop small-scale, grid-independent electrolysis economically, we stand to benefit significantly from this new decree. We have spoken at length about the permitting delays we have faced - an unfortunate but natural outcome of a novel technology in a nascent industry - so we are extremely pleased to see that regulators are recognizing the need to streamline the permitting process and fast-track the projects that will help Europe realize its ambitious decarbonization commitments.

During the second quarter of 2021, Fusion Fuel submitted three projects to Portugal’s Operational Program for Sustainability and Efficient Use of Resources (“POSEUR”). One of these projects related to a company-owned HEVO-Sul project located in Sines, Portugal. In the second quarter of 2022, we received approval from the POSEUR for the HEVO-Sul project. The Portuguese government has allocated €40 million in direct grants for the POSEUR program, which aims to support the production of green hydrogen and other renewable gases, and Fusion Fuel has been approved for €4.3 million in grant for this project. At the beginning of August 2022, we submitted our first claim under this agreement, which amounted to €2.6   million.

On August 18, 2022, we announced that we were successful with our application under the Component 14 (“C-14”) of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan for our HEVO-Industria project in Sines, Portugal. The award of €10 million marked the largest single-project grant award in the application. Our HEVO-Industria project will consist of around 10 MW of electrolyzer capacity along with a hydrogen refueling station and capabilities for gas blending requirements.

New and Future Markets

United States and North America

Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) in the United States on August 16, 2022, changed the game in our favor. The financial incentives of the IRA, in particular the $3/kg production tax credit, will immediately make our green hydrogen competitive with grey hydrogen. Considering these tailwinds, we communicated our intention to accelerate our growth strategy into North America. To that end, in the third quarter 2022 we announced our first anchor project in the United States, a $180 million, 75 MW solar-to-green hydrogen facility to be located in Bakersfield, California. Due to the unique combination of solar irradiance, the incentives available under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, and proximity to large-scale offtake in the form of logistics hubs, heavy industry, and natural gas infrastructure, Bakersfield is the ideal cornerstone of our North American commercial strategy. The project, which will be jointly developed alongside Electus Energy, will feature a refueling station for heavy duty commercial vehicles, along with the balance of plant equipment for filling and distributing compressed cylinders to supply local industrial customers. We have already obtained the necessary land lease option and commenced pre-feasibility work with Black & Veatch as the lead contractor for the project and are targeting final investment decision on the project in 2025 , with commissioning expected in 2027. 

Expansion into North America, beginning with Bakersfield, is a pivotal step forward for Fusion Fuel. To ensure we can deliver on Bakersfield and secure additional development opportunities in this new market, we have begun building out our North American team, with particular focus on our business and project development capabilities. However, both the scale of Bakersfield and the need for the majority of our equipment to be sourced in the US in order to be eligible for the incentives provided by the IRA, will necessitate the development of a manufacturing facility in North America. Given the scope of the addressable market in North America, particularly in light of the anticipated 2024 introduction of the HEVO-Chain, this would lead to a step change in our production capacity over the back half of the decade. We are in the early stages of that process and will continue to update the market as we refine our production strategy.

In the second quarter of 2022, we were also accepted into California Fuel Cell Partnership.

Europe

In Europe we continue to see a severe and prolonged energy crisis. This situation has been triggered by several factors including the conflict in Ukraine and the broader geopolitical tension that it has created, as well as extreme drought conditions in several countries which has dramatically reduced the energy output from hydroelectric power generation. All of this has only increased the importance of an energy source and industrial feedstock that is not only clean and can help reach the carbon reduction targets, but that can also be produced within the European Union. In the recent months we have seen increased public discussions, including from the German Chancellor and the Portuguese and Spanish Prime Ministers, on intra-European pipelines that could also carry clean hydrogen. This year has also seen the most extensive opening of grants and government funding for green hydrogen infrastructure and projects ever in Europe. This is a trend which we believe will persist well into the middle of the decade given the strategic importance of green hydrogen for Europe to help realize its decarbonization and energy security ambitions. We have been fully engaged with the existing programs in Southern Europe and have been incredibly successful in securing support for several industry-leading projects.

We believe the Italian market is a natural extension of our core European business owing to its excellent solar irradiance, existing natural gas infrastructure, proximity to our Benavente production facility, and stated ambition to integrate green hydrogen within its energy portfolio over the coming years.

In that vein, in the third quarter of 2022 we announced a joint agreement with Duferco Energia SpA to extend our reach into Italy. The agreement establishes the framework for developing a commercial pipeline in Italy and select countries in the MENA region for technology sales and project development. Fusion Fuel will utilize Duferco’s local sales network, knowledge of local markets, and deep expertise in shipping and logistics while serving as our “boots on the ground” for the development of that market. The first project under the agreement will be a 1.25 MW pilot project at Duferco’s industrial facility in Giammoro, Sicily, which would produce an estimated 46 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum and will be developed in 2024. Our strategy is to build on the commercial blueprint we have employed successfully in Portugal and Spain focusing on the mobility and industrial segments. We will look to develop a mobility backbone in Southern Italy, beginning with four integrated solar-to-hydrogen refueling stations by the end of 2024. In parallel, we will pursue opportunities to develop hydrogen hubs around industrial centers in Northern Italy, akin to how we have approached the Sines region in Portugal. One of our initial targets will be to work with Duferco to deploy our HEVO-Chain technology at their steel mill in Brescia, Italy. We are confident this multifaceted strategy, enabled by our best-in-class electrolyzer technology, will facilitate the establishment of Fusion Fuel as an early leader in the Italian green hydrogen market.

Commercialization

In the first quarter of 2022, we formally signed a technology sale agreement with KEME Energy for a 1.2MW green hydrogen facility, which had earlier received approval for €1.4 million in funding from Portugal’s POSEUR programme. We also signed a significant framework agreement with Hive Energy, a prominent UK-based developer of renewable energy assets to develop large-scale green hydrogen projects in Spain. These are highly credible and established players in the clean energy space, and we view them – along with Exolum – as strategic partners for Fusion Fuel in the Iberian market. We recognize the importance of aligning Fusion Fuel with strategic partners across the value chain, we expect that to be a key element of our strategy going forward.

We continue to make substantive progress in building strategic relationships which bring additional technical resources and broaden our commercial footprint, including but not limited to the agreements we have entered into with Toshiba (focused on MEA development), Duferco Energia SpA (opening up the Italian market) and Electus Energy (our partner in our recently announced project in Bakersfield, California).

We view partnerships as a powerful tool to create meaningful value for our shareholders, whether through raising our corporate profile, extending our commercial footprint, strengthening our supply chain, or deepening our technology advantage. One example of strategy in action is a memorandum of understanding we recently signed with Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corporation (“Toshiba ESS”). The agreement envisions Fusion Fuel helping Toshiba ESS expand its commercial footprint into the European electrolyzer and green hydrogen markets, and Toshiba ESS supplying Fusion Fuel with its advanced membrane electrode assemblies for evaluation for use in our proprietary HEVO micro-electrolyzer. The most effective alliances are those based on complementary assets and shared advantages, and we certainly believe that that is the case for Toshiba ESS and Fusion Fuel. We look forward to further advancing our relationship with Toshiba ESS over the coming months and, ultimately, helping to create a unique value proposition and durable competitive advantage.

Corporate Information

Parent serves as a holding company for Fusion Fuel Portugal and its subsidiaries. Parent’s principal executive office is located at The Victorians, 15-18 Earlsfort Terrace, Saint Kevin’s, Dublin 2, D02 YX28, Ireland. Parent’s telephone number is +353 1 920 1000.

The SEC maintains an internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains report, proxy, and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. Such information can also be found on Parent’s website (https://www.fusion-fuel.eu/). The information on or accessible through our website is not part of this Annual Report.

B. Business Overview

About Fusion Fuel  

Fusion Fuel is committed to accelerating the energy transition and decarbonizing the global energy system by making zero-emissions green hydrogen commercially viable and accessible. Fusion Fuel has developed a revolutionary new electrolyzer design – the HEVO – that will allow it to produce grid-independent green hydrogen more efficiently and cost-effectively than conventional PEM systems, without any associated carbon emissions.

The company’s unique competitive advantage is based on the following core attributes, which collectively underpin Fusion Fuel’s differentiated positioning in the marketplace:

Fusion Fuel's mission is to provide the world with innovative green hydrogen solutions that accelerate the transformation of the global energy sector and enable the sustainable reduction of carbon emissions. Hydrogen is an important commodity for the global economy – it is a critical input in the refining and ammonia production sectors, However, conventional production of hydrogen is highly carbon-intensive, accounting for roughly 2.2% of global total carbon emissions globally. Fusion Fuel’s novel green hydrogen production solutions will enable the production of cost competitive green hydrogen and help decarbonize the hard-to-abate sectors like refining and ammonia production.

Examples of Internally Generated Projects    

PORTUGAL-H2 EVORA

Fusion Fuel’s first solar-to-green hydrogen plant, H2Evora, consists of 15 HEVO-Solar generators with the latest generation of Fusion Fuel’s HEVO micro-electrolyzer. H2Evora also includes state-of-the-art hydrogen purification, compression, and storage systems, as well as a Ballard Power Systems fuel cell to convert the green hydrogen into electricity to be fed into the national grid.

Installation at H2Evora is complete and our HEVO-Solar generators have been operating continuously since the fourth quarter of 2021. The facility is currently awaiting formal commissioning. This was not only the first solar-to-hydrogen plant in Iberia, but also the first plant producing and using green hydrogen as an energy storage medium all in one integrated facility.

PORTUGAL-GREENGAS

GreenGas project consists of 40 HEVO-Solar generators which will produce approximately 45 tons of green hydrogen per year. The GreenGas plant will be connected to the Autonomous Regasification Unit of the city of Evora.

The green hydrogen produced will demonstrate two use-cases:

This is Portugal’s first utility-scale project to produce green hydrogen from solar energy and blend green hydrogen at scale into a local natural gas distribution network. Installation of this facility is currently underway.

PORTUGAL-HEVO-SUL

The HEVO-Sul project is comprised of 4.3 MW of electrolyzer capacity. The plant will have a maximum annual production capacity of approximately 418 tons of green hydrogen annually, if using both solar and night-time functionality. The facility will be located in Sines, Portugal. The hydrogen is expected to be used for several different applications, including injection into the natural gas distribution network, as an input in the production of green ammonia, as well as bottling in pressurized cylinders for industrial uses.

Fusion Fuel has received approval from Portugal’s Operational Program for Sustainability and Efficient Use of Resources (POSEUR) for its proposed HEVO-Sul project. The Portuguese government has allocated €40m in direct grants for the POSEUR program, which aims to support the production of green hydrogen and other renewable gases, and Fusion Fuel has been approved for €4.3m in grant for this project.

The HEVO-Sul project is expected to be built in the second half of 2023.  

PORTUGAL-H2 HEVO-SINES

Fusion Fuel is leading the ‘Sines Green Hydrogen Valley Alliance’, a consortium which also includes KEME Energy, Transition2Green, and HyLAB Collaborative Laboratory.

The centerpiece of the initiative is Fusion Fuel’s €147m H2 HEVO-Sines project, a 91 MW solar-to-hydrogen plant with an annual production capacity of 9,163 tons of green hydrogen, which would avoid the emission of 73,940 tons of CO₂ annually.

H2 HEVO-Sines is part of a portfolio of projects that comprise Fusion Fuel’s large-scale IPCEI project in Sines, which would produce an estimated 61,848 tons of green hydrogen annually, equivalent to 606 MW of electrolysis capacity, once fully ramped up in 2026.

In the third quarter of 2022, we announced that we were successful with our application under C-14 of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan for our HEVO-Industria project in Sines, Portugal, for around 10 MW of the Sines project portfolio. The award of €10 million marked the largest single-project grant award in the application. In addition, Fusion Fuel has secured over €20m of grants under the C-5 program of Portugal´s Resilience and Recovery Plan for the remainder volume of the project.

OTHER PROJECTS IN PORTUGAL – TECHNOLOGY SALES

SINES GH2 SOLAR

Fusion Fuel is supplying its HEVO-Solar technology to KEME Energy, which is developing a 1.2 MW solar-to-green hydrogen farm in Sines and is expected to produce an estimated 77 tons of green hydrogen per annum.

C-5 ELVAS

Fusion Fuel will be using its HEVO based technology to install a green hydrogen production facility and a Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) solution in Elvas, Portugal. The project counts with the partnership of GALP and is expected to be installed in 2024 and has secured a €3.6m grant.

KEY PROJECTS IN SPAIN- TECHNOLOGY SALES

EXOLUM - MADRID

Fusion Fuel has developed a turnkey solar-to-hydrogen plant located in Madrid, Spain for the Spanish fuel logistics and distribution company, Exolum. The project includes 21 HEVO-Solar units along with a co-located refueling station, which will serve as proof of concept of hydrogen for mobility applications. In the third quarter of 2022, we commenced construction on the Exolum project and the project is expected to be commissioned in 2Q of 2023.

CSIC

Fusion Fuel has been selected as the hydrogen production technology provider for a 0.5 MW tender launched by CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas) in Spain. The project includes 22 HEVO-Solar units along with a co-located refueling station (supplied through a separate tender and by another party). The first deliverables for the project are due in 2Q 2023 and Fusion Fuel will supply all materials by the end of 3Q 2023.

OTHER PROJECTS

Fusion Fuel continues to develop projects in Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Australia, and the United States.  The development of projects is a key factor in developing our sales pipeline. Projects are all started in a dedicated SPV which can then be transferred at a time that we decide to a financial investor which either buys the ready built plant from Fusion Fuel or takes on the contractual obligation to provide the financing for the technology deployment to the project. Across several markets, Fusion Fuel has around 1.5 GW of projects in pipeline.

Recent Developments

Of the €36 million awarded to the consortium, €22.5 million will be allocated to Fusion Fuel’s H2 HEVO-SINES project, a 3,000 HEVO-Solar facility – equivalent to 75 MW of electrolysis capacity – that will be developed, owned, and operated by the company. Fusion Fuel has already secured 121 hectares of land within the Sines area for the development of the project, which is expected to reach final investment decision and commence construction in 2024. The green hydrogen to be produced is expected to be used in decarbonizing local industry, mobility applications, and for blending into the natural gas grid. Another €3.5 million will be allocated to Fusion Fuel to fund research and development of its proprietary electrolysis technology. The balance of the funding will be allocated to other projects within Fusion Fuel’s consortium for which the Company is a technology partner, including those sponsored by KEME Energy, Transition2Green, and HyLAB Collaborative Laboratory.

Except for the project with Exolum Corporation, S.A. (“Exolum”) and the CSIC project   previously announced and further discussed herein, the Company is currently under no obligation to proceed with, and therefore no penalties or liabilities would be imposed on the Company with respect to, any of the projects set forth above if the Company determines, for any reason, not to proceed with such project. With respect to projects where the Company or its partners have been awarded grants, they are only required to either proceed or reimburse any funds received if grant funds have actually been transferred to the Company. The Company only commits to a project when definitive contracts with the hydrogen off-taker or the technology buyer are signed. In determining whether to proceed with a project, the Company considers several factors including, but not limited to, timing to completion, project financials and target return, relationship with the partner or client and the production capacity available. Accordingly, other than the Exolum and CSIC projects, there can be no assurance that the Company will actually proceed with any of the projects set forth above.

In addition, as previously announced, we are in continual negotiations with third parties to fund our operations. Although discussions and negotiations continue to progress with such third parties, including in some cases the execution of non-binding letters of intent or term sheets, none have reached the stage of executed definitive agreements at this time. As negotiations are fluid, it is possible that any particular negotiation could accelerate or be abandoned at any time. An announcement of any material agreement with a third party would be made when and if a material definitive agreement is reached with such third party.

Business Strategy & Vision

Fusion Fuel aims to enable meaningful emissions reductions through viable economic means using green hydrogen. In doing so, Fusion Fuel believes it can become a major player in the global hydrogen economy over the next 10 years.

Fusion Fuel aims to develop a technology and project pipeline in Southern Europe and the MENA region as a first phase in its strategy execution, and continue to expand into other strategic markets globally, including Australia and the United States.

Fusion Fuel Business Lines

Fusion Fuel’s HEVO based technology is expected to be a leading product in the industry for generating cost-effective green hydrogen in the markets in which it seeks to operate. In addition, the Fusion Fuel team collectively has extensive experience in establishing and operating sustainable energy plants, as well as relationships with many sustainable energy stakeholders and hydrogen users (ranging from natural gas networks and grids, oil refineries, ammonia producers, regulators and related government departments). Fusion Fuel is focused on two core business lines that build on its hydrogen generator.

Fusion Fuel’s industry and business require continuous innovation and improvement. To this end, the R&D team has already designed the next generations of the hydrogen generator to be developed. This innovation aims at not only improving the efficiency of the product, but also reducing the costs of production. Continuous R&D is a core part of the ongoing strategy for the firm.

The Technology  

The HEVO is Fusion Fuel’s proprietary miniaturized PEM electrolyzer. It has been designed to be small, lightweight and, critically, able to be mass produced. In order to miniaturize the PEM electrolyzer, a radically different approach was taken to the MEA design, titanium plate designs and overall flow fields in the system – these form the basis of Fusion Fuel´s core intellectual property.

Fusion Fuel uses the HEVO as the basis for its two core products, the HEVO-Solar and the HEVO-Chain.

In the HEVO-Solar solution the process is coupled with CPV technology such that system is a grid-independent hydrogen generator. This coupled approach for generating hydrogen significantly increases the total system efficiency, results in a low cost per kilogram of hydrogen produced, and benefits from the high automation level of mass producing the HEVO. Fusion Fuel uses this process to extract hydrogen from water molecules without the creation of any carbon emissions and with oxygen as the only biproduct. Therefore, the output is designated green hydrogen, which is hydrogen created in a fully carbon-free process, as opposed to the traditional methods of creating hydrogen which produce upwards of 9 tons of carbon emissions for every ton of hydrogen produced (designated as “grey hydrogen”).

The HEVO-Solar uses both the electricity produced by the photovoltaic cells and the heat captured from the CPV 2-axis panels, thereby reducing the total amount of electrical energy required for the electrolysis process. This increases the efficiency of the Fusion Fuel solution compared to other current market products. Because the process requires solar irradiation, locations with higher levels of solar irradiation would produce higher amounts of hydrogen on an annual basis at a lower cost per kilogram (as capital expenditure related to the equipment is spread across a larger production output).

The HEVO-Chain uses our HEVO electrolyzers in a chain to create a centralized electrolyzer solution that is modular and can be scaled as needed. We can supply three versions of the HEVO-Chain, 1) a 20-foot containerized solution that can house up to 1 MW of electrolyzer capacity, 2) a 40-foot containerized solution that can house up to 2.5 MW of electrolyzer capacity, and 3) a non-containerized solution that is more cost efficient for larger projects but which requires tailoring according to the project size.

The HEVO-Chain is a revolutionary innovation in the design of centralized PEM electrolyzers. Rather than relying on a traditional cell-stack, the HEVO-Chain builds off Fusion Fuel’s proprietary HEVO architecture, enabling the system to operate at higher efficiency – roughly 49 kWh / kg of hydrogen – and avoid the losses that stem from more conventional electrolyzer stack designs. Each HEVO-Chain hydrogen unit consists of 16 HEVO micro-electrolyzers interconnected along a string, representing 11.2 kW of electrolysis capacity and outputting 5.6 kg of hydrogen per day at a pressure of 4 bar. A planned second-generation unit is expected to increase the pressure at the outlet to 20-30 bar, among additional improvements. As with the HEVO-Solar, the HEVO-Chain was built with modularity and scalability in mind – it is designed for a standard 19” rack cabinet, allowing for up to eight units to be integrated seamlessly alongside the power electronics and water purification system. The HEVO-Chain is currently undergoing comprehensive performance and reliability testing. The company expects the first HEVO-Chain units to enter commercial use in 2024.

Working Capital Items

Currently, Fusion Fuel’s inventory consists of raw materials purchased for the production of its HEVO-Solar and HEVO-Chain solutions. Fusion Fuel has entered into multiple agreements with MagP, for the assembly and installation of Trackers. Please refer to the Related Party Transactions section of Item 7 – Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions for further information on these agreements.

Distribution, Marketing and Strategic Relationships

Fusion Fuel has established strategic relationships with various stakeholders in the Green Hydrogen market, including partner companies, suppliers, potential clients and government agencies, many (if not all) of which are proprietary in nature and give us our competitive advantage.

Fusion Fuel Portugal has been included in the Portuguese Government’s Strategic Roadmap for Hydrogen and has applied for a grant for a Green Hydrogen project in Evora. Discussions with stakeholders are ongoing in Europe, the MENA region, and North America.

Environmental Issues

There are no significant pollutants or other hazardous emissions from Fusion Fuel’s operations, the CPV technology, the HEVO or any other functions used by Fusion Fuel in extracting Green Hydrogen, nor are any anticipated. In addition, the are no carbon or hazardous emissions that result from Fusion Fuel’s extraction of hydrogen, and the only biproduct of the process is oxygen. As such, we do not expect the Company would be materially impacted by the passage of any climate change legislation, regulation or accords that seek to impose a carbon tax or curtail carbon-intensive business activities. Furthermore, none of the Company’s manufacturing or corporate facilities are located in geographies particularly susceptible to geological or climate risks. We expect that the continued heightened attention and importance given to environmental issues are likely to benefit Fusion Fuel as the interest and value of its zero-carbon solution increases. It is possible that climate change legislation, regulation or accords could increase demand in this market and thereby increase competition, but such activity may also normalize hydrogen as a broadly used and accepted energy source.

Competition

To our knowledge there are no similar technologies or systems to Fusion Fuel’s HEVO based technologies. We believe this technology is innovative, disruptive, and original. The centralized electrolyzer technology, which is used by Hydrogenics, ITM Power, Plug Power, NEL Hydrogen, Giner and McPhy, among others, represents the main competition to Fusion Fuel’s technology. Even though Fusion Fuel’s technology currently has a significantly higher efficiency rate than the centralized electrolyzer, it is expected that there will be further evolution in the efficiency of the centralized electrolyzers, and so we expect the market to remain competitive.

Fusion Fuel is faced with competition from several aspects of the industry, namely:

Fusion Fuel believes competition in this industry will be driven by the final price of Green Hydrogen per kilogram as an output. Efficiency of energy conversion will be a secondary competitive factor. Because Fusion Fuel’s solution produces Green Hydrogen at cost levels that are highly competitive to Brown Hydrogen and significantly less expensive than other producers of Green Hydrogen, we do not believe we will lose cost competitiveness in the market. However, there is significant and continuous R&D in the industry which will drive competition. For this reason, Fusion Fuel maintains a strong investment in R&D activities, capitalizing on the accumulated know-how from its team and prospective partners. Fusion believes this is a key factor to achieve sustainable growth and market differentiation, and maintaining the technological lead over other market solutions. We believe that Fusion Fuel has achieved a major breakthrough for the energy sector as a whole, and Fusion Fuel aims to position itself as the leading expert on Green Hydrogen, leveraging all the positive outcomes that our solution can achieve in multiple areas and businesses.

Fusion Fuel can benefit from competition as the market grows as such competition may drive down costs and promote continued innovation for externally sourced components and systems. For example, the hydrogen piping and storage systems at each of Fusion Fuel’s hydrogen plants are externally sourced and a general increased interest in the hydrogen market may lead to further improved products or reduced prices from Fusion Fuel’s suppliers.

Regulations & Certifications   

Fusion Fuel’s HEVO-Solar system comprises two major components: the photo-electro component where the photon to electron conversion process takes place, and the electrochemical component, where the electrolysis process takes place.

In respect of the electrolysis process for extracting hydrogen, Portugal introduced legislation at the end of August 2020 regarding the security of the processes such as generating, distributing and blending hydrogen with natural gas. This legislation also covers the licensure requirements of Green Hydrogen projects developed by official entities like DGEG (Direção Geral de Energia) from the Portuguese Government, LNEG (National Laboratory) and others. Fusion Fuel is compliant with these regulations and will continue to monitor any future developments to ensure continued compliance.

In respect of the photo-electro component, the MagP photo-electro system is CE marked, which is a certification that confirms conformity with health, safety and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area, in accordance with IEC 62108, which specifies requirements and implements a series of tests for design qualification and type approval of CPV modules and assemblies suitable for long-term operation in general open-air climates.

The MagP photo-electro system conforms with the following certification marks:

The Fusion Fuel electrochemical part conforms with the following certifications:

The Fusion Fuel HEVO-Chain containerized solution will conform with the following standards where applicable:

All of the above-listed certification standards have required tests, and Fusion Fuel will need to provide proof of testing and a responsibility letter of the Fusion Fuel Executive Board to the relevant test administrators in order to be compliant. If a technology does not pass a particular test, a report is issued and the technology can be adapted and retested until it is brought into compliance. Each test costs somewhere between €60,000 to €80,000. Fusion Fuel will engage an authorized third party to assist with the process of achieving conformity with these certifications.

Fusion Fuel must conform with each of these certification standards in order to install its various projects, the first being the Evora Project. The HEVO was developed and designed to account for these various standards and requirements and we believe it will pass each required test.

Additionally, Fusion Fuel expects that there will be new standards and technical requirements that will standardize the production, transportation and use of hydrogen and to manage the integration of hydrogen in natural gas networks. We intend to comply with each new standard or requirement applicable to our products and services.

Raw Materials and Suppliers

Fusion Fuel Portugal has entered into a production contract with MagP to purchase pre-determined volumes of CPV materials to be confirmed at the start of each year. This ensures that Fusion Fuel will have a guaranteed minimum product supply from an experienced manufacturer to support its ability to deliver against its business plan. MagP is a strategic supplier, in particular because of its CPV technology used in the HEVO-Solar. The HEVO Chain solution is produced at Fusion Fuel´s own Benavente facility.

Most components and materials essential to Fusion Fuel are generally available from multiple sources, with a few exceptions.   Fusion Fuel believes there are component suppliers and manufacturing vendors whose loss to Fusion Fuel could have a material adverse effect upon Fusion Fuel’s business and financial condition. The loss of such suppliers would require Fusion Fuel to source new suppliers, incur delays as any such suppliers adapt to our specification requirements, and conduct testing on the product rendered by such new suppliers to ensure the fitness of such product.

Fusion Fuel is discussing with key suppliers coordinated product plans, strategic inventories, and internal and external manufacturing schedules and levels.

Research and Development  

Given the nascent stage of the Green Hydrogen industry, we believe that continuous R&D in all aspects regarding product development, manufacturing process and material sourcing are key to maintain industry competitiveness and relevance. With that mind set, Fusion Fuel’s R&D department is tasked with developing continuous improvements to existing products and services, as well as developing new related products and services.

Fusion Fuel Portugal filed its first patent, the “Direct Coupled Water Hydrogen Generator for Hydrogen Generation from Concentrated Sunlight”, on March 10, 2020, which was submitted on August 3, 2020 with International Patent Submission Number PCT/IB2020/05733. Fusion Fuel Portugal filed its second patent called “Floating Guiding Flow Plate for Electrochemical Cells” which was submitted on October 14, 2020 with the International Patent Submission Number PAT/116826A. Fusion Fuel Portugal [filed] two provisional patents in the first half of 2022 called “Oxygen evolution reaction without gas diffusion layer on an PEM electrolysis cell” and “UPP design to reduce inter-cell mismatch”, respectively.

Fusion Fuel also benefits from exclusive use of MagP’s intellectual property and CPV products when it relates to the production of hydrogen. This is a close collaboration between the firms that extends to R&D as well given that the compatibility of both companies’ products is important for the final product manufacturing.

The majority of Fusion Fuel’s expenses at this stage come from prototype models, various stress tests and new generation testing, as well as patent filings and registrations in all relevant markets, and the personnel costs associated with the R&D department.

Human Capital Resources

The executive team is composed of Frederico Figueira de Chaves (CFO) and Zachary Steele (Co-President Americas) as Co-Heads of the Executive Committee. Other members of the Executive Committee include Andre Antunes (Chief Production Officer), Jaime Silva (Chief Technology Officer), João Teixeira Wahnon (Chief Origination Officer & Head of Commercial MENA & Spain), Jason Baran (Chief Commercial Officer & Co-President Americas), David Lovell (Head of Australasia), Mario Garma (Chief Engineering Officer).

The Executive Committee structure is outlined in the graphic below:

Fusion Fuel, at the date of publishing this report, has more than 150 full time employees and continues to grow its team across all areas. Fusion Fuel’s employment contracts include confidentiality, non-disclosure and non-competition clauses to protect the firm and its intellectual property. Fusion Fuel has also engaged headhunters in Portugal and in other locations to aid in the search of specific talent related to R&D, EPC and Commercial team requirements.

Seasonality

Fusion Fuel’s business lines can be impacted by seasonality effects. In terms of business development there are certain holiday periods that slow down negotiations and discussions with counterparts and clients, potentially also impacting the supply chain. In addition, revenues from Fusion Fuel’s owned and operated hydrogen plants may be impacted by seasonality as solar radiation varies throughout the year and that can lead to variances in hydrogen sale revenues month on month.

JOBS Act

Parent is an “emerging growth company” and, under the JOBS Act, will be allowed to comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements based on the effective date for private (not publicly traded) companies. Parent has elected to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, Parent may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As such, the consolidated financial statements for Parent may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates.

Parent could remain an emerging growth company until the last day of Parent’s fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of HL’s initial public offering, or December 31, 2023. However, if Parent’s annual gross revenue is $1.235 billion or more, if its non-convertible debt issued within a three year period exceeds $1 billion or the market value of its ordinary shares that are held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million on the last day of the second fiscal quarter of any given fiscal year, Parent would cease to be an emerging growth company as of the following fiscal year.

C. Organizational Structure

The following chart illustrates the Fusion Fuel legal entity s    tructure as of the date of this Annual Report:

D. Property, Plants and Equipment  

On January 1, 2021, Fusion Fuel Portugal entered into a Sub-Lease Agreement with Negordy for space of 4,156 square meters of office, logistical, and industrial activities. Parking plots are also included. The sub-lease has an initial term of five years, with automatic renewal for additional terms of five years until either party notifies the other party of its intention not to renew. Either party can choose to terminate the agreement after 20 months once adequate communication is provided to the other party. The monthly rent determined by the sub-lease is fixed at €0.02 million.

On December 20, 2022, Fusion Fuel Portugal entered into a sale-and-leaseback agreement for its facility at Benavente, Portugal. The leaseback arrangement has an initial term of 20 years and will be automatically renewed for a further ten years unless the Group provides sufficient notice to terminate. The monthly rent determined by the lease is fixed at €0.05 million.

A description of Fusion Fuel’s material tangible fixed assets and its material plans to develop and install Green Hydrogen plants, including without limitation Evora, is included in this Annual Report above in this “Business Overview” section and the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section contained in Item 5 below, each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 4A. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

Not applicable.

ITEM 5. OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

The following management’s discussion and analysis (this “MD&A”) provides information concerning our financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 and should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in Item 17 of this Annual Report on Form 20-F, “Financial Statements.”  All terms used herein and not otherwise defined shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Annual Report.

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our future plans, estimates, belief, and expected performance. The forward-looking statements are dependent upon events, risks and uncertainties that may be outside our control. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed elsewhere in our Annual Report, particularly in Item 3.D of the Annual Report, “Risk Factors,” and in the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” set forth herein. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed may not occur. 

Overview 

Fusion Fuel Green serves as a holding company for the Fusion Fuel business. Fusion Fuel’s mission is to produce hydrogen with zero carbon emissions, thereby contributing to a future of sustainable and affordable clean energy and the reversal of climate change. Fusion Fuel produces green hydrogen through two products with components built in-house and one that also incorporates elements from a partnership with MagP.

Fusion Fuel’s business plan includes the sale of technology to parties interested in generating green hydrogen at an attractive cost (including to natural gas networks, ammonia producers, oil refineries, and other similar customers), the development of hydrogen plants to be operated by Fusion Fuel and active management of the portfolio of such hydrogen plants as assets, and the sale of green hydrogen as an output with pre-defined HPAs.

To date, Fusion Fuel’s business activity has primarily been financed by the capital in connection with its business combination with HL, and the related private placement, in December 2020. Fusion Fuel expects both its capital and operating expenditures to significantly increase in connection with its ongoing activities, as Fusion Fuel:

We have generated no revenue to date. As reported, in September 2021, we entered into our first third party technology sale agreement with Exolum, a leading supplier of specialist storage, handling and transport for bulk liquids and gases. Work commenced on this project during the third quarter of 2022 and is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2023. The contract price included both fixed and variable elements and we expect to earn revenues of approximately €1.9 million, which will be payable once certain conditions are met, including equipment warranties and performance guarantees covering both degradation over time and specified energy yields. Upon entering into this contract, we expected that this project would either have a low margin (if at all) or operate at a loss. As a result, we informally agreed with Exolum at the time, and again more recently, to pursue innovation grant awards that could mitigate any loss. Nevertheless, we believed this contract was a key strategic milestone for the Company for the following reasons:

When pricing this contract, we made an estimate of the raw material and production costs, however, on review of such project costs, we revised our estimate and now currently expect that this project will result in a loss of €5.17 million. We continue to work in conjunction with Exolum to source grant funding given that this will be the first demonstrator plant of its kind in Spain. Based on our previous record with grant awards, we would expect any such award to offset a significant portion of the expected losses, although there can be no assurance, we will receive any such grant awards. We continue to review the project costs but given current information, we have recorded an onerous contract provision of €5.17 million during 2022, which reflects the Group’s best estimate at this time of the total expected contract loss. The increase in provisions has been recorded in “cost of sales”. This project has been of significant value in building our Iberian pipeline and we believe that any loss (if we are unable to offset it with grants) will be offset by the business opportunities created for the Company. 

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, Parent generated a total comprehensive loss of €27.35 million, primarily consisting of administration expenses of €18.42 million, research and development expenditure of €0.91 million, share based payment expense of €3.51 million, impairment charge related to property, plant and equipment of €3.32 million and cost of sales of €8.77 million, partially mitigated by €7.62 million of fair value gains on its derivative financial instruments (Warrants) and a foreign exchange gain of approximately €1.38 million generated during the period. The above impairment charge related specifically to our internally generated hydrogen production plants. An impairment test was conducted when an indication of impairment was identified by management.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, Parent generated total comprehensive loss of €23.56 million, primarily consisting of administration expenses of €7.51 million, research and development expenditure of €0.18 million, share based payment credit of €0.8 million and €28.3 million of fair value gains on derivative financial instruments (Warrants). In addition, a foreign exchange gain of €2.3 million generated.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, there was no cost of revenue, except for the above onerous contract provision recorded for Exolum (€5.17 million), further contract loss provisions recorded for two other projects that had not commenced by December 31, 2022 (€3.2 million) and the cost of scraped materials through the normal production cycle of €0.36 million. Once Fusion Fuel commences internal commercial production, cost of revenue is expected to include direct parts, material and labor costs, manufacturing overhead, including amortized tooling costs and depreciation of facilities, cost of hydrogen production, shipping and logistics costs and reserves for estimated warranty expenses. 

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, there was no cost of revenue.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, and 2021, R&D expenses consisted of €2.83 million and €0.93 million, respectively, primarily consisting of:

We expect R&D costs to gradually increase for the foreseeable future as we progress on projects due to continued investment in R&D activities to achieve our business plans.

Parent has funded the activities of the Fusion Fuel business using its own reserve of capital. To date, no grant amounts claimed have been received and these are still under review. Subsequent to December 31, 2022, VAT receipts of €2.23 million have been received.

Key Factors Affecting Operating Results 

We believe that our performance and future success depend on several factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section of the Annual Report titled “Risk Factors.”

Business Combination and Public Company Costs 

On December 10, 2020, we consummated the business combination among Parent, HL, and Fusion Fuel Portugal. Fusion Fuel Portugal was deemed the accounting predecessor of the Parent and the successor SEC registrant, meaning that Fusion Fuel Portugal’s financial statements for previous periods will be disclosed in Parent’s periodic reports filed with the SEC.

As a consequence of the transactions with HL, Parent became an SEC-registered public company and its class A ordinary shares and Warrants are listed on Nasdaq, which has required Parent and Fusion Fuel Portugal, as the operating company, to hire additional personnel and implement procedures and processes to address public company regulatory requirements and customary practices. Parent and Fusion Fuel Portugal each expect to incur additional annual expenses as a result of Parent becoming an SEC-registered and Nasdaq-listed public company for, among other things, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, director fees and additional internal and external accounting and legal and administrative resources, including increased audit and legal fees.

Launch of Fusion Fuel’s Hydrogen Generator, the HEVO-Solar, and First Green Hydrogen  Plants 

Fusion Fuel expects to derive revenue from the development of its first green hydrogen plant - the Evora Project (H2Evora & GreenGas). Prior to installing any HEVO-Solar units, Fusion Fuel was required to obtain all the construction permits, hydrogen production licenses and land rental agreements (the “Plant Permits”) for any such plant. H2Evora consists of 15 HEVO-Solar generators armed with Fusion Fuel’s 2021 generation of the HEVO micro-electrolyzer. H2Evora also includes state-of-the-art hydrogen purification, compression and storage systems, as well as a Ballard fuel cell to convert the green hydrogen into electricity to be fed into the national grid. Installation at H2Evora is complete and our HEVO-Solar generators have been operating continuously since late 2021. The facility received formal commissioning during the fourth quarter of 2022. This was not only the first plant to create green hydrogen in Iberia, but also the first plant producing and using green hydrogen as an energy storage medium all in one integrated facility.

On November 10, 2022, the Company announced that it had successfully commissioned its H2Évora plant. The demonstration project, comprised of 15 HEVO-Solar units and associated balance of plant equipment, will produce 15 tons of green hydrogen per year and avoid the emission of 135 tons of CO2 annually. The facility includes a 200-kilowatt FCwaveTM fuel cell module supplied by Ballard Power Systems (“Ballard”), which is used to convert its green hydrogen into electricity, enabling Fusion Fuel to sell power into the electric grid during periods of peak demand. We believe the integration of Fusion Fuel’s solar-to-hydrogen HEVO solution and Ballard’s fuel cell technology is a powerful proof of concept for the use of hydrogen as a flexible energy storage vector and off-grid power supply. This facility serves both as a source of some revenue to the company but most critically as a testing site for new generations of our technology.

The GreenGas project consists of 40 HEVO-Solar generators which will produce approximately 45 tons of green hydrogen per year. A portion of the HEVO-Solar generators will be outfitted with the next generation HEVO-Night, which will unlock the production of green hydrogen using renewable energy sources overnight or during periods of low or no solar irradiation. The GreenGas plant will be connected to the Autonomous Regasification Unit of the City of Evora. The green hydrogen produced will demonstrate two use-cases:

This will be Portugal’s first utility-scale project to produce green hydrogen from solar energy and blend green hydrogen at scale into a local natural gas distribution network. Installation of this facility is currently underway.

During the third quarter of 2022, Fusion Fuel commenced construction work on its first third-party technology sale. Fusion Fuel and Exolum will develop a turnkey solar-to-hydrogen plant to supply green hydrogen to Madrid, Spain. Exolum is a leading supplier of specialist storage, handling and transport for bulk liquids and gases, with one of the most comprehensive ranges of tankage in Europe. The project will have 21 HEVO-Solar units along with a co-located refueling station, which will serve as proof of concept of hydrogen for mobility applications. This facility will also feature the latest generation HEVO micro-electrolyzer capable of leveraging other sources of renewable energy to produce green hydrogen overnight and during periods of low solar radiation, which are expected to double the productive output of the facility. The construction of this solar-to-hydrogen plant is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2023 with commissioning expected to take place during the same quarter.

Fusion Fuel will begin construction work on its second and larger hydrogen plant, known as the HEVO-Sul Project, which, in addition to requiring the same Plant Permits, is also expected to require approximately €12m of capital expenditure which we expect to utilize working capital for such expenditures. The project has already been granted the required environmental permits from the applicable Portuguese permitting agency and a final investment decision is expected in the first half of 2023. The HEVO-Sul project consists of 178 HEVO-Solars located in Sines, Portugal.

Grant funding of €4.3 million has been approved for our HEVO-Sul project which has a total projected cost of approximately €12 million. The grant is expected to be received throughout the execution life of the project which is expected to be in 2023. We expect the installation of the systems for this project to occur throughout 2023 once construction permits have been approved and granted, which is expected to occur during the first half of 2023.

On October 6, 2022, the Company announced that it had entered into a technology sale agreement with KEME Energy (“KEME”) to supply its solar-to-hydrogen system for a 1.22 MW green hydrogen project located in Sines, Portugal. The two companies had previously announced the execution of a collaboration agreement in February 2022. The project, which secured a €2.4 million grant from Portugal’s POSEUR programme in late 2021, will be developed in ZILS, the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone, and will consist of 62 HEVO-Solar trackers that will generate an estimated 77 tonnes of green hydrogen per year. The hydrogen produced is expected to help meet local demand from customers in the nascent hydrogen mobility sector. Fusion Fuel expects to begin construction of the facility in the second quarter of 2023 and achieve commercial operation in the second half of 2023.

On November 18, 2022, the Company announced that it had entered into a commercial agreement with Duferco Energia SpA (“Duferco”) to jointly develop the green hydrogen ecosystem in Italy and select markets in the MENA region. A subsidiary of Duferco Group, the multinational steel and commodity trading company, Duferco Energia is focused on the management of energy production assets and marketing of energy services. The companies expect to leverage Duferco’s local sales network, knowledge of local markets, and deep shipping and logistics expertise to develop a pipeline of development opportunities and turnkey technology-sale projects. The inaugural project under the agreement is a 1.25 MW green hydrogen pilot project to be developed at Duferco’s industrial site in Giammoro, Sicily. Fusion Fuel is expected to supply 50 of its HEVO-Solar trackers for the proposed project, which would be installed in the first half of 2024. The facility would produce roughly 46 tonnes of green hydrogen per year which would be used to power a molten carbonate fuel cell system, adding a unique and innovative aspect to the project.

On November 21, 2022, the Company announced that four projects in Spain, in which the Company is involved as a technology provider, have been pre-selected for up to €12.9 million in grant funding. If successful, the grants will be awarded through the H2 Pioneros Program, which has a current year budget of €150 million and aims to support commercial projects across the renewable hydrogen value chain. H2 Pioneros is one of the first funding calls under the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (“PERTE”) program, a €6.9 billion financing tool created under Spain’s recovery and resilience facility, to support projects and initiatives in renewable energy, green hydrogen, and energy storage. Fusion Fuel is expected to supply a total of 423 HEVO-Solar units to the four projects, equivalent to 10.5 MW of electrolysis capacity, which would reach final investment decision in 2023 and be delivered on a turnkey basis in 2024. These four projects are expected to generate €31.7 million in revenue, of which an estimated €16.4 million would be earned by Fusion Fuel from the sale of Fusion Fuel technology. All four projects have secured land for their respective development, and the companies expect to commence permitting once the terms of acceptance for the grants are signed. Three of the projects are focused on hydrogen refueling, a reflection of Fusion Fuel’s strategic focus on the development of a mobility backbone throughout Iberia, while the fourth will produce green hydrogen for local industrial use.

On November 23, 2022, the Company announced its entry into the centralized electrolyzer market with the introduction of its HEVO-Chain solution. The HEVO-Chain is a revolutionary innovation in the design of centralized PEM electrolyzers. Rather than relying on a traditional cell-stack, the HEVO-Chain builds off Fusion Fuel’s proprietary HEVO architecture, enabling the system to operate at higher efficiency – roughly 49 kWh / kg of hydrogen – and avoid the losses that stem from more conventional electrolyzer stack designs. Each HEVO-Chain hydrogen unit consists of 16 HEVO micro-electrolyzers interconnected along a string, representing 11.2 kW of electrolysis capacity and outputting 5.6 kg of hydrogen per day at a pressure of 4 bar. A planned second-generation unit is expected to increase the pressure at the outlet to 20-30 bar, among additional improvements. As with the HEVO-Solar, the HEVO-Chain was built with modularity and scalability in mind – it is designed for a standard 19” rack cabinet, allowing for up to eight units to be integrated seamlessly alongside the power electronics and water purification system. The HEVO-Chain is currently undergoing comprehensive performance and reliability testing. The company expects the first HEVO-Chain units to enter commercial use in 2024.

On November 28, 2022, the Company and Electus Energy announced that the two companies had entered into an exclusive joint venture agreement to develop a large-scale green hydrogen project in Bakersfield, California. The proposed project is a roughly 75 MW solar-to-hydrogen facility using Fusion Fuel´s HEVO technology, capable of producing up to 9,300 tons of green hydrogen per year including nighttime operation. The project would require an estimated €175 million (or approximately $180 million) in capital investment, with a final investment decision expected in early 2024 and commissioning in the first half of 2025. Once operational, this project will provide enough hydrogen fuel to support over 1,000 Class 8 trucks or buses per day. The companies have already entered into a land-lease agreement to secure 320 acres in Kern County, California for the project's development. Fusion Fuel has engaged Black & Veatch to perform a concept study and is also working with Cornerstone Engineering and Headwaters Solutions.

Any delays in the successful completion of the above projects will impact Fusion Fuel’s ability to generate revenue.

Fusion Fuel has received interest in its technology both from parties interested in developing their own hydrogen production plants, as well as parties interested in purchasing green hydrogen as an end product. This interest comes from companies both within and outside of Portugal. Although Fusion Fuel expects the pipeline of its announced projects to be an indicator of future performance, there can be no guarantees that any of the projects will succeed, be completed or that any additional projects will be announced.

As indicated in the accompanying audited financial statements of Parent, at December 31, 2022, Parent had a cash position of €8.2 million, which included €2.9 million of restricted cash. This €2.9 million is deemed restricted as it can only be used on specific projects so is not readily available to be spent on operating expenses. In addition, Parent had other assets of approximately €57.20 million, liabilities of approximately €36 million and no open tax obligations. Our cash position was funded primarily from the net proceeds generated from the HL merger and the concurrent private placement financing that closed on December 10, 2020, proceeds of approximately $10.05 million from the exercise of warrants during the first quarter of 2021, and proceeds of approximately $3.69 million from the sales of class A ordinary shares under an At the Market Issuance Sales Agreement (“the ATM”), see further discussion below. In addition, we received €3.38 million in grant funding in December 2022.

Parent’s assets, in addition to cash and cash equivalents, consist of advances to suppliers in the amount of €1.92 million, which consists mostly of amounts required to secure the future supply of raw materials and equipment for our hydrogen production plants. Parent’s liabilities consist of accounts payable to suppliers in the amount of €6.15 million, accruals in the amount of €1.93 million, provisions of €8.40 million and warrants in the amount of €7.65 million. The Group has no external debt as of December 31, 2022.

In a prior period, a subsidiary of the Group entered into an agreement with MagP, a related party, to deliver equipment, materials and assembling services in relation to the Groups other ongoing production facilities. At the beginning of 2023, the parties agreed to remove the yearly minimum commitment and provide the quantities to be produced on a quarterly basis.

During 2021, the Group extended a participating loan to finance the growth and working capital needs of Fusion Fuel Spain S.L, an entity in which the Company has joint control. This loan facility has a term of five years and the maximum amount that can be drawn down is €2 million. €0.2 million (2021: €nil) had been drawn down during the twelve month period ended December 31, 2022 and the costs paid by the Group on behalf of Fusion Fuel Spain, €0.63 million (2021: €0.63 million), have been treated as an advancement of this loan for accounting purposes. An amount of €0.74 million had yet to be drawn down at December 31, 2022.

In February 2022, the Company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Fusion Fuel Portugal, S.A. secured nearly €10 million in grants for its industrial production facility in Benavente. Under this grant agreement, the funding is split into two components: direct financial support for eligible expenses and tax credits available to the company over a period of several years. The funding is provided to the Company as reimbursement of expenses incurred by the Company in connection with the project and is paid to the Company after it has spent such amounts but no further conditions or approvals are necessary for the Company to receive the reimbursements.

On August 18, 2022, the Company announced that it had received confirmation from the Portuguese government that it will receive an estimated €10 million grant as part of Component 14 (“C-14”) of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan to develop its 6.6MW HEVO-Industria green hydrogen project in Sines, Portugal. C-14 is focused on accelerating the energy transition by supporting the production of hydrogen and other renewable gases.

On December 7, 2022, Parent announced that it had been approved for a total of €36 million in grant funding for its “Sines Green Hydrogen Valley Alliance” through Component 5 (“C-05”) of Portugal´s Recovery and Resilience Plan. The component – Mobilizing Agendas for Business Innovation – is intended to align stakeholders from across the entire value chain to develop the domestic green hydrogen ecosystem. The company had previously disclosed that it had been selected for financing awards, subject to further negotiations with the Agenda Coordination Commission. These discussions have now been concluded and Fusion Fuel has submitted the respective award contract duly signed and expects to receive the award by mid-January 2023.

Of the €36 million awarded to the consortium, €22.5 million will be allocated to Fusion Fuel’s H2 HEVO-SINES project, a 3,000 HEVO-Solar facility – equivalent to 75 MW of electrolysis capacity – that will be developed, owned, and operated by the company. Fusion Fuel has already secured 121 hectares of land within the Sines area for the development of the project, which is expected to reach final investment decision and commence construction in 2024. The green hydrogen to be produced is expected to be used in decarbonizing local industry, mobility applications, and for blending into the natural gas grid. Another €3.5 million will be allocated to Fusion Fuel to fund research and development of its proprietary electrolysis technology. The balance of the funding will be allocated to other projects within Fusion Fuel’s consortium for which the Company is a technology partner, including those sponsored by KEME Energy, Transition2Green, and HyLAB Collaborative Laboratory.

At the Market Issuance Sales Agreement

On June 6, 2022, Parent entered into an At the Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “ATM”) with B. Riley Securities, Inc., Fearnley Securities Inc., and H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell, from time to time, through or to the agents, acting as agent or principal, class A ordinary shares of the Company having an aggregate offering price of up to $30 million. During 2022, we sold 681,926 class A ordinary shares for net proceeds of $3,685,792 at an average sales price of $6.10 per share. We paid $681,926 in commissions to the agents in connection with these sales. During 2023 to date, we sold an additional 726,851 class A ordinary shares for net proceeds of $2,599,144 at an average sales price of $3.91 per share. We paid $77,974 in commissions to the agents in connection with these sales.

Management is of the opinion that the Company’s working capital at December 31, 2022, and the receipt of debt or equity funding, the receipt of grant funding that has been awarded and scheduled project related revenues will provide sufficient liquidity to fund operations for at least one year after the date the financial statements are issued. In making this assessment, management has considered the Group’s available cash resources, future financing options available to the Group, the planned operations of the Group and the ability to adjust its plans if required.

The Group expects to seek additional funding in order to continue to fund its operations through the end of 2023 and beyond. The Group expects to seek additional funding through public or private financing of debt or equity or through strategic partnerships. The inability to obtain funding, as and when needed, would have a negative impact on the Group’s financial conditions and ability to pursue its business strategies. If the Group is unable to obtain funding, the Group could be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate some or all of its research and development programs or strategic partnerships efforts, which could adversely affect its business prospects, or the Group may be unable to continue operations. Although management intends to pursue plans to obtain additional funding to finance its operations, there is no assurance that the Group will be successful in obtaining sufficient funding on terms acceptable to the Group to fund continuing operations, if at all.

Fusion Fuel’s industry and business require continuous innovation and improvement. To this end, the R&D team has already designed the next two generations of the HEVO-Solar which, subject to necessary funding, the Company expects to develop. This innovation aims at not only improving the efficiency of the product, but also reducing the costs of production. Likewise, the HEVO-Chain is not only going through the testing required to put the first generation into commercial operation, but the next generation with a higher output pressure is also already being worked on.

Continuous R&D is a core part of the ongoing strategy for Fusion Fuel. For more information about Fusion Fuel’s R&D, see Item 4 “Business Overview – Research and Development” in the Annual Report.

Other than the risks described in Item 3.D. “Risk Factors” of the Annual Report, we are not aware of any trends, uncertainties, demands, commitments or events since the beginning of our fiscal year 2022 that are reasonably likely to have a material effect on our net revenues, income from operations, profitability, liquidity or capital resources, or that would cause the disclosed financial information to be not necessarily indicative of future operating results or financial condition.

Parent does not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2022.

Fusion Fuel Portugal has a Production Agreement with MagP pursuant to which MagP guarantees the transformation of materials provided by Fusion Fuel Portugal for the CPV solar trackers used in Fusion Fuel’s HEVO-Solars. The current production quantities to be produced are agreed between both parties quarterly in advance. Fusion Fuel does not have any financial obligations under this contract, contingent or otherwise, as the contract provides that MagP is to deliver a fixed number of Trackers, as agreed between both parties. A fixed cost per Tracker to be supplied by MagP is also stipulated in the contract. For more information relating to the contracts with MagP, see “Related Party Transactions” in the Annual Report.

During 2022, the Board of Directors approved the installation of multiple production lines at the Group’s production facility at Benavente. The Group has signed agreements amounting to €18.3 million relating to the design, fit-out and installation of multiple production lines. At December 31, 2022, the Group had capital commitments of €12.4 million (2021: €nil) of which €6.4 million fall due for repayment during 2023. During 2023, the Group has already paid €1.3 million of this amount..

This MD&A contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” above.

ITEM 6. DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES

A. Directors and Senior Management

The following table sets forth the name, age and position of each of our directors and executive officers as of the date of this Annual Report.

(1)    Member of the Audit Committee

(2)    Member of the Nominating Committee

(3)    Member of the Compensation Committee

Jeffrey E. Schwarz became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Parent on December 4, 2020, which was the date that Parent’s board of directors approved the closing of the Transactions. Mr. Schwarz served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of HL Acquisitions from HL’s inception in February 2018 until the Merger. He is the Co-Founder of Metropolitan Capital Advisors, Inc., a New York-based money management firm founded in 1992. Schwarz served as Metropolitan’s Chief Investment Officer from the firm’s inception until his retirement in 2012. Since 2012, he has served as the Managing Member of Metropolitan Capital Partners V LLC, the investment vehicle of the Schwarz family office. Mr. Schwarz also serves as the Co-Chairman of the Board of Bogen Corporation, a provider of audio equipment. Mr. Schwarz previously served as the Chairman of the Board of Molopo Energy Ltd., an Australian Stock Exchange listed, Calgary, Alberta-based oil and gas exploration and production company, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Cyberonics Inc., a Nasdaq listed medical device company. Mr. Schwarz received a BS in Economics (Summa Cum Laude) and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. We believe Mr. Schwarz is well-qualified to serve as a director due to his contacts and business experience.

Alla Jezmir became a Director of Parent as of December 4, 2020, which was the date that Parent’s board of directors approved the closing of the Transactions. Ms. Jezmir currently serves as Advisor at Earthrise Energy, an Arlington, VA based company focused on accelerating the energy transition. From 2019 to 2023, she served as Executive Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Earthrise. From 2013 to 2019, Ms. Jezmir served in progressively senior roles, most recently as Managing Director, at CCM Energy, the clean energy investment division of CCM Group, a real estate firm. From 2015 to 2019, Ms. Jezmir was Principal and founding team member of Traverse Venture Partners, an investment platform launched out of CCM to back entrepreneurs transforming the real estate industry. Prior to these roles, she served as Project Manager in the Business Development group at The AES Corporation from 2010 to 2012. At AES, she steered the development of its Global Gas Program, served on the Internal Review Team, and supported project development for the company’s award-winning energy storage group. As Principal of the Green Portfolio at Calvert Impact Capital from 2009 to 2010, Ms. Jezmir led the organization’s Green Initiative, investing in community development organizations across the globe that address social and environmental disparities. From 2009 to 2018, she co-founded and served as Board Chair of EGG-energy, a company that delivered solar energy to Tanzanian households and small enterprises lacking access to the power grid. Ms. Jezmir holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis. She serves on the Board of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI), is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and founding member of the Leadership Now Project. We believe Ms. Jezmir is well qualified to serve as a director due to her experience in the clean energy industry and in early-stage companies.

Rune Magnus Lundetrae became a Director of Parent and Chair of the Board Audit Committee as of December 4, 2020, which was the date that Parent’s board of directors approved the closing of the Transactions. Mr. Lundetrae served as a member of HL’s board of directors from June 2018 until the Merger. From 2020 Mr Lundetræ has managed investments in the shipping and energy industry and is a Director and Chairman of several public and private companies, primarily in Norway. From December 2016 to December 2019, Mr. Lundetrae served as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Borr Drilling Ltd., the world’s largest premium jack-up rig operator. From August 2015 to December 2016, he was a Managing Director and Head of Oil Services of DNB Markets, the investment banking subsidiary of DNB, Norway’s largest financial services group. From 2012 to June 2015, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Seadrill Ltd, the world’s largest offshore driller. From 2010 to 2011, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Scorpion Offshore, an international offshore drilling company based in Houston, Texas and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Mr. Lundetrae began his career with KPMG Stavanger, an auditing firm. He received a BA in Business Administration from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, a M.Sc in IS Management from the London School of Economics and a M.Sc of Accounting and Finance from the Norwegian School of Economics. He is qualified as a CPA in Norway. We believe Mr. Lundetrae is well qualified to serve as a director due to his significant experience with public companies, in particular on the accounting and governance aspects.

Theresa “Terry” Jester became a Director of Parent on December 13, 2021. Ms. Jester currently serves on the Boards of NEXT Energy Technologies, a developer of organic photovoltaic coatings used to transform windows into energy-producing assets, and Silicor Materials, a global leader in the production of solar silicon. She previously served as CEO of BIA Controls, a developer and installer of demand management, energy management and building automation software systems. Ms. Jester began her career at ARCO Solar in 1979 where she helped develop and commercialize the materials strategy which is largely still in use today for crystalline silicon products. There she led the development of the first large $400 million solar manufacturing operation in Camarillo, California, as well as helped run factories in the Philippines, Germany, Brazil, India, and Portugal as part of the worldwide strategies for SunPower, Solaria, SolarWorld, Shell and Siemens. Ms. Jester holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree from California State University. We believe Ms. Jester is well-qualified to serve as a director due to her contacts and business experience, particularly with respect to developing, producing, and commercializing new technologies.

Frederico Figueira de Chaves is Co-Head of Fusion Fuel´s Executive Committee as well as Group Chief Financial Officer and Director. He became the Chief Financial Officer and a Director of Parent on June 3, 2020. Mr. Figueira de Chaves has been a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of Fusion Welcome, S.A. since 2018 and is also a member of Key Family Holdings Investments, a minority shareholder of Fusion Fuel and Negordy S.A., S.A. From 2006 to the end of 2019, he held various senior positions (Managing Director level) at UBS AG, including UBS Asset Management Head of Sales Management & Marketing, AM Head of Wealth Management Distribution, Chief of Staff to Asset Management CEO, Chief of Staff to UBS Group COO & Head of EMEA, among others. Mr. Figueira de Chaves holds a master’s degree in Economics from Edinburgh University. We believe Mr. Figueira de Chaves is well-qualified to serve as a director due to his experience in developing and running new business lines at UBS AG, his financial services background and network, and his knowledge of the Fusion Fuel strategy, business, and supply chain.

Jaime Silva became the Chief Technology Officer and a Director of Parent as well as member of the Executive Committee as of December 4, 2020, the closing date of the Transactions. Mr. Silva co-founded Fusion Welcome, S.A. and has served as Chief Technology Officer and executive officer of each of Fusion Welcome, S.A., Fusion Fuel and MagP Inovação, S.A. since 2015. Prior to founding Fusion Welcome, S.A., Mr. Silva co-founded MagPower - Soluções de Energia S.A., a CPV solar company (“MagPower”), and served as its Chief Technology Officer from inception in 2007 until 2014. MagPower created the foundation to the CPV solar technology currently used by MagP Inovação, S.A., and pays royalties to MagPower on all sales of the CPV solar technology, including the sales to Fusion Fuel. Prior to MagPower, Silva was founder and CEO of Margina - Industria Metalomecânica S.A. - Metallurgic Industry, and before that founder and CEO of Imediata - Comunicações e Multimédia S.A., a multimedia kiosk technological company. Mr. Silva holds a master’s degree in management and a master’s degree in telecommunications each from the University of Porto, and a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Porto. We believe Mr. Silva is well-qualified to serve as a director due to his experience in the green energy space, his extensive knowledge of the Fusion Fuel business and his technical and scientific knowledge in this space as the developer of Fusion Fuel’s hydrogen electrolyzer.

João Teixeira Wahnon became a Director of Parent on June 3, 2020 and became the Chief of Business Development as well as member of the Executive Committee as of December 10, 2020, the closing date of the Transactions. Mr. Teixeira Wahnon co-founded Fusion Welcome, S.A. and has served as Head of Business Development for each of Fusion Welcome, S.A., Fusion Fuel and MagP Inovação, S.A. since 2015. Prior to working with Fusion Welcome, S.A., he was an Executive Director of MagPower from 2009 until 2014. From 2005 to 2008 he was a Business Development Advisor to the Board of Directors at Somague Ambiente SGPS S.A., a water treatment and supply company in Portugal, and from 1994 to 2004 he was a Director at Somague Engineering S.A., an engineering and construction company in Portugal, and was responsible for civil works negotiations. He holds a Degree in Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon. We believe Mr. Teixeira Wahnon is well-qualified to serve as a director due to his experience in the green energy space, his extensive knowledge of the Fusion Fuel business and his broad network of contacts in the renewable energy business and industry in Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the United States.

Zachary Steele is Co-Head of Fusion Fuel´s Executive Committee and became Group Co-Head of Americas and Co-President of Fusion Fuel USA as of January 1, 2022. Mr. Steele is an experienced energy entrepreneur and senior executive who has founded, led, and sold multiple energy infrastructure companies over the course of his 16-year career. Prior to joining Fusion Fuel, he served as Vice Chairman and CEO of Cedar LNG, a US$2.4 billion floating LNG project located in British Columbia. Zach brings significant leadership and commercial expertise overseeing complex projects and businesses throughout the energy markets, including the solar, biofuels, and LNG markets. Mr. Steele is a board member of the Canadian American Business Council Entrepreneurial Circle and is based in the United States. We believe Mr. Steele is well qualified to serve given his experience in developing projects in the Americas and in having led several successful company creations and subsequent transactions.

André Antunes became Chief Production Officer as well as member of the Executive Committee on August 1, 2021. Mr. Antunes has more than 15 years of experience in different industries as automotive, metallurgic, tobacco and FMCG, and proven success in manufacturing and production, quality assurance and leadership. Before joining Fusion Fuel, S.A., and since 2020, Mr. Antunes was the Operations Manager in a Unilever Factory in Portugal. From 2011 until 2020 worked in Tabaqueira, S.A., a Philip Morris International affiliate, where he joined as a Production Supervisor, holding different roles such as Strategic Planner, Continuous Improvement Leader, Production Business Unit Manager, Production Secondary area Manager and Site Production Manager. From 2006 until 2011 he was the Operations Manager in Farame, S.A., a metallurgic company. From 2002 until 2006 held different roles in Automotive Industry in 3 different Companies, such as Toyota - Salvador Caetano, PSA - Mangualde Plant and GM - Azambuja plant, holding different roles in Quality and Production. Mr. Antunes holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management in University of Aveiro, a Post-Graduation in Management in New University of Lisbon and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt degree from Lean Six Sigma Company. We believe Mr. Antunes is well qualified to serve as Chief Production Officer due to his experience in establishing, running, and continuously improving large scale production facilities.

David Lovell became Chief Executive Officer of Fusion Fuel Australia as well as member of the Executive Committee on November 1, 2021. Mr. Lovell is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience in the finance, investment banking and construction industries having held many senior roles including at the Bank of Tokyo, Transfield Holdings, Leighton Contractors (now CIMIC) and Origin Energy. He brings significant commercial and financial expertise in relation to major landmark infrastructure projects, including PPPs and privatized infrastructure, across a wide range of industry sectors including power and renewable energy. David is based in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Lovell holds a Bachelor of Financial Administration, Diploma of Economic Statistics and Master of Economics from the University of New England and Master of Business Administration from University of Melbourne. He is also a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). We believe Mr. Lovell is well qualified to serve as a CEO of Fusion Fuel Australia due to his experience in the energy sector in Australia.

Jason Baran became Co-Head of Americas of Parent and Co-President of Fusion Fuel USA as well as member of the Executive Committee on January 1, 2022. Mr. Baran is an operating and finance executive with extensive strategy, M&A, business development, and capital raising experience. Prior to joining Fusion Fuel, he served as a Board Member and CFO of Cedar LNG, a US$2.4 billion floating LNG project located in British Columbia. Jason presents significant experience with development-stage assets and developing commercial strategies and contracts to support investment objectives. Mr. Baran holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Davidson College and is based in the United States. We believe Mr. Baran is well qualified to serve as Co-Head of Americas of Parent and Co-President of Fusion Fuel USA due to his regional knowledge and experience in complex deal and transaction structuring.

Mario Garma became Head of EMEA as well as member of the Executive Committee on October 18, 2021. Mr. Garma has more than 17 years of experience in the industrial gases industry at Air Products. During his tenure, worked has focused primarily on strategic planning, operations and energy management, and production process improvement. While at Air Products, Mr. Garma held several roles, most recently as Head of Development of Strategic Infrastructure for Green Hydrogen for Southern Europe and previously was Production and Energy Manager for Southern Europe, Process Engineer, as well as Asset Development Manager where he led the infrastructure development process for entry into the Moroccan market. We believe Mr. Garma is well qualified to serve as Head of EMEA due to his experience in the development, construction, and operation of gas plants in Europe.

Parent’s board of directors is divided into three classes with only one class of directors being elected in each year and each class serving a three-year term. The term of office for the first class of directors, consisting of Jeffrey E. Schwarz, João Teixeira Wahnon, and Jaime Silva, will expire at Parent’s annual general meeting of shareholders in 2023. The term of office for the second class of directors, consisting of Frederico Figueira de Chaves and Theresa Jester, will expire at Parent’s annual general meeting of shareholders in 2024. The term of office for the third class of directors, consisting of Rune Magnus Lundetrae and Alla Jezmir, will expire at Parent’s annual general meeting of shareholders in 2025.

B. Compensation

Executive Officer Compensation

The aggregate amount of compensation paid by Fusion Fuel to its Executive Officers named above in fiscal 2022 was €5.0 million. Each Executive Officer currently receives a total of €0.18 million   of gross fixed annual compensation plus certain short- and long-term benefits. The benefits issued by Fusion Fuel are dictated by the country of residence of each Executive Officer.

For further details of share-based remuneration that have been granted to the Company’s employees, including the Executive Committee Members, see “Item 10. Additional Information—Options to Purchase Securities from Registrant,” as well as Note 8 to the consolidated financial statements included herein.

Decisions on the executive compensation program will be made by the compensation committee of the board of directors of Parent. We anticipate that decisions regarding executive compensation will reflect our belief that the executive compensation program must be competitive in order to attract and retain our executive officers. We anticipate that the compensation committee of the board of directors of Parent will seek to implement our compensation policies and philosophies by linking a significant portion of our executive officers’ cash compensation to performance objectives and by providing a portion of their compensation as long-term incentive compensation in the form of equity awards.

Non-executive Director Compensation

At the beginning of 2022, the compensation committee undertook a review of the compensation rates in place for the non-executive directors. Based on such review, the Board adopted following changes to the compensation amounts for fiscal 2022 and for future periods for their service on Parent’s board  :