How a Power Electronics Supplier Accelerated Growth by Focusing on the Sub-100MW Market
Pivoting from broad pursuits, the supplier leveraged H2 Lead Navigator’s data to precisely target and dominate the profitable sub-100MW hydrogen market.
For specialized component suppliers in the booming hydrogen energy sector, the allure of ‘giga-projects’ often presents a critical challenge. While massive in scale, these opportunities can lead to intense competition and bog down business development efforts, leaving firms struggling to find their niche. This case study explores how a leading European power electronics supplier navigated this landscape, transforming their strategy to accelerate growth and dominate a profitable market segment.
They didn’t need more data. They needed sharper focus.
The Challenge: The Giga-Project and Its Impact on the Supply Chain
For many specialized component suppliers in the burgeoning hydrogen energy sector, the advent of ‘giga-projects’ has presented a complex and often daunting dilemma. While the sheer scale of these massive opportunities is undeniable, they invariably foster an intensely competitive environment where smaller, highly specialized firms often find it difficult to gain visibility and make their voices heard by large, entrenched procurement teams. This exact situation confronted a leading European supplier of high-performance power electronics. Despite having an expert engineering team with advanced systems, their business development efforts were increasingly bogged down by the struggle to secure a foothold in these massive 200+ MW projects.
Here’s what was going wrong:
• Intense Competition for Mega-Projects: The firm spent significant resources prospecting for massive 200+ MW projects, facing fierce competition from huge industrial conglomerates, resulting in limited returns despite high effort.
• Late-Stage Engagement: Opportunities found only after key technical decisions were made, preventing experts from bringing innovative solutions or influencing specifications early.
• Unpredictable Sales Pipeline: Focus on large-scale projects created excessively long, unpredictable sales cycles and a slow, high-risk pipeline, hindering sustainable growth
Intense Competition
Problem: Competing fiercely against conglomerates for 200+ MW projects
Impact: High resource consumption for prospecting, limited returns
Late-Stage Engagement
Problem: Opportunities found only after key technical decisions were made
Impact: Unable to showcase advanced systems or influence early design
Unpredictable Sales Pipeline
Problem: Focus on massive projects led to long, unpredictable sales cycles
Impact: Slow, high-risk pipeline hindered sustainable growth
The Shift: A Strategic Pivot to the Mid-Market
Recognizing the limitations of competing for giga-projects, the supplier’s leadership team made a pivotal strategic decision: to shift their focus and become the dominant player in the sub-100 MW ‘mid-market.’ They anticipated this segment would offer a better balance of project volume, faster procurement cycles, and greater appreciation for their specialized expertise. To execute this strategic pivot effectively, the team adopted the VNZ Insights HyPrism™ H2 Lead Navigator, a sophisticated sales intelligence tool designed to empower them with the data and filtering capabilities needed for this new vision. Their new, data-enabled process was methodical and precise.
Here’s what changed:
• Defining a Custom Mid-Market: Using the H2 Lead Navigator’s “Project size- Segment” filter, the team precisely selected 1-5 MW and 5-50 MW categories, creating a unique view of the sub-100 MW European market often overlooked by competitors.
• Focusing on Early-Stage Engagement: To engage projects early, the team refined their watch list by filtering for Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) opportunities, securing a pipeline for adding expertise and value.
• Building a Qualified and Viable Pipeline: Leveraging the 3-Pillar Framework, the team rigorously qualified projects, ensuring the sales funnel comprised only viable opportunities with verified substantial funding and clear offtake plans.
Defining a
Custom Market
Filtered H2 Lead Navigator to define a unique, overlooked sub-100 MW European market
Focusing on
Early-Stage
Refined watch list via FEED filters for early engagement, securing a value-add pipeline
Building a
Qualified Pipeline
Used 3-Pillar Framework to qualify projects with funding/offtake, ensuring a viable funnel
Your sales shouldn’t be a guessing game!
Book A Demo CallThe Outcome: Increased Sales Velocity and Market Leadership
This strategic shift, enabled by the targeted intelligence from the H2 Lead Navigator, had a profound impact on the supplier’s business.
Here’s what improved:
• Robust and Diversified Pipeline: The team rapidly built a strong, diversified pipeline of qualified leads from the mid-market, significantly reducing mega-project dependency and creating a predictable business forecast.
• Accelerated Sales Velocity: Sales cycles for sub-100 MW projects proved dramatically shorter, moving prospects faster from initial contact to securing commission, thus improving operational efficiency and cash flow.
• Dominating a Profitable Segment: Their focused, data-driven approach quickly earned them a go-to expert reputation in the European mid-market, securing significant sales growth and a strong, defensible position.
Robust & Diversified Pipeline
Built a robust pipeline from the mid-market, reducing mega-project dependency
Accelerated
Sales Velocity
Shorter sales cycles accelerated prospect movement, improving efficiency
Dominating
a Segment
Became go-to mid-market experts, achieving significant sales growth and a strong position
Select fields. Get high-probability hydrogen leads. Instantly.
Pick Your Prospect Filters
Choose your desired regions, buyer type, capacity, project size and more to filter relevant prospects.
Get Detailed Project Insights
See funding status, realization probability of project, project stage, offtake info, stakeholders, and more.
Instantly Start Your Pitching
Your qualified, probability-filtered hydrogen leads are ready for sales pitching.
Your sales shouldn’t be a guessing game!
Book A Demo CallFrequently Asked Questions
H2 Lead Navigator is a sales intelligence platform designed to help companies identify high-potential green energy projects. Unlike traditional market research, which relies on static reports and scattered data from news alerts , H2 Lead Navigator is a dynamic tool. It moves beyond simple project lists by using a proprietary analytical framework to qualify prospects, separating high-probability leads from speculative announcements.
H2 Lead Navigator maps over 1,000 green hydrogen projects in Europe with detailed information. It allows supply chain players to filter by “Project size- Segment” (from Sub-MW to 200+ MW) to match their supply capabilities. The platform also tracks “Technology details”, helping firms identify projects with specific component or technical requirements that align with their product portfolios.
Yes, H2 Lead Navigator covers over 1,000 green hydrogen projects mapped across 29 countries in Europe. This extensive geographic coverage, coupled with upcoming reports for regions like MENA, China, India, and North America, enables supply chain players to identify and explore new markets and regions for their hydrogen-related products and services.
The 3-Pillar Framework assesses each project based on:
- Funding Status: Has the project secured grants or financing?
- Project Status: Is it at FEED or Final Investment Decision (FID) stage?
- Offtake Status: Does it have binding customer offtake agreements?
H2 Lead Navigator allows filtering projects by “Project status,” including “Early stages/Feasibility” and “FEED” (Front-End Engineering Design). This enables firms to identify opportunities where key technical decisions or supplier selections, such as “Electrolyser Supplier,” are still “Not Available/Not Decided”. This facilitates early engagement during the crucial design stage.
Early engagement, driven by H2 Lead Navigator insights, allows a supply chain firm to enter discussions in a non-competitive environment, as seen in the case study. This provides the unique opportunity to showcase specialized expertise and influence project design decisions before key suppliers are selected, differentiating the firm from competitors who engage later. By identifying projects in early stages, firms can secure strategic partnerships with developers or EPCs and become a ‘go-to’ supplier for specific segments.
H2 Lead Navigator ranks projects by “Realization Probability” (from Very High to Limited Probability) , allowing firms to focus their sales efforts on high-potential opportunities. This strategic focus reduces wasted time and resources on low-probability projects, leading to a more robust, predictable, and diversified sales pipeline, and reducing dependency on high-risk mega-projects.
By enabling precise targeting of specific project segments (e.g., sub-100 MW as in the case study) and facilitating early engagement, H2 Lead Navigator helps firms establish themselves as ‘go-to’ experts in their chosen niche. Additionally, the platform tracks selected suppliers, such as “Electrolyser Supplier” for projects, allowing for insights into competitor activity and informing competitive strategy.
Our insights come from proprietary research by VNZ Insights — built on tools like the Electrolyser Delivery Database, expert interviews, and in-house analysis — transforming raw data into strategic intelligence.
H2 Lead Navigator maps “Project participants” and “Asset Owners”, enabling supply chain firms to identify experienced and reputable players in the hydrogen ecosystem. Furthermore, it provides insights into “Funding Status” (e.g., substantial funding awarded) and “Off-take Status” (e.g., binding agreements) , helping to understand project viability and broader investment trends, with over $15 billion USD+ funding awarded to projects in the pipeline.
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