For a quarter of a century, H-TEC SYSTEMS has been driving the energy transition with innovative PEM electrolyzers and electrolysis stacks for green hydrogen production. Now, under new leadership, the company is scaling up production to singlehandedly cut 1 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Just a stone’s throw away from the MAN Museum in Augsburg, Germany, where the city’s historic importance for the development of advanced engineering is on full display with the first test Diesel engine developed by Rudolf Diesel himself, another energy revolution is underway.
In the production halls of H-TEC SYSTEMS, which recently became part of MAN Energy Solutions, state-of-the-art electrolyzers are being assembled that will form the backbone of the world’s green hydrogen (H2) economy. “Proton Exchange Membrane or PEM electrolysis is a proven and well understood technology,” Robin von Plettenberg tells me in an office above the company’s factory floor.
“Green hydrogen can supply enough energy to eliminate 10 percent of global emissions from fossil fuels” – Robin von Plettenberg, CEO of H-TEC SYSTEMS.
Von Plettenberg, a former Senior Vice President at MAN Enegy Solutions, joined H-TEC SYSTEMS as CEO at the beginning of 2022 and is committed to reaching big goals. For 25 years, the company has been a technological pioneer in PEM electrolysis and the electrolyzer business, and now the priority for von Plettenberg is to scale up at a pivotal moment in the emergence of a global green hydrogen boom.
The emergence of a green hydrogen economy
In June 2020, Germany passed a National Hydrogen Strategy that supports the production, storage, distribution and use of green H2 as a replacement for fossil fuels. It also aims to create at least 10 gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity by the end of the decade. And in July 2020, the rest of the European Union announced its hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe, which is already stimulating investment in the production and use of H2 to cut back GHG emissions and assist the economic recovery.
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The US is following suit as well. The Biden administration has passed the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, which earmarked US$9.5 billion for jobs and investment in the clean H2 sector. And the US Inflation Reduction Act will provide tax credits to subsidize the production of green H2, making it cost-competitive with, or even cheaper than, conventional H2 production. Will all these efforts be enough?
