Zepp.solutions successfully secured a €1.98 million grant from the European Just Transition Fund (JTF) for the development of a cutting-edge fuel cell systems factory.
The JTF, which contributes to the transition to a Climate Neutral Europe, recognizes zepp’s potential in supporting the regional economy’s innovation and reducing the negative impact on employment during this transition.
The factory, to be established in the Greater-Rijnmond region, will allow zepp.solutions to strengthen its leading position in Europe’s growing hydrogen sector. With the support of the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) and Social Affairs and Employment (SZW), as well as the municipalities in the Dutch Greater Rijnmond area, zepp.solutions aims to accelerate the energy transition and foster resilience in the labour market.
“We are thrilled and proud to receive this significant grant from the Just Transition Fund. This is an important step towards establishing a new state-of-the-art production facility for our fuel cell systems. It will allow us to further accelerate our technology and scale up the production and deployment of these hydrogen systems in the next few years “said Jonas Brendelberger, co-founder of zepp.solutions.
Fully integrated systems to replace diesel engines
The factory will be dedicated to the production of zepp’s Y50 and X150 fully integrated hydrogen fuel cell modules. These fuel cell modules extremely efficiently transform hydrogen gas into usable high-voltage electric power to drive vehicles, vessels or other heavy machinery. Current applications include the Rotterdam Watertaxi, excavators for construction as well as a 67-meter long inland shipping vessel. The first two semi-trucks featuring zepp’s fuel cell systems will hit the roads later this year.
“The zepp team is excited to increase our contribution to a climate-neutral Europe. Each of our systems ultimately replaces a polluting diesel engine resulting in a reduction of between 111 and 332 metric tons of CO2 per system annually. Our fuel cell technology boasts an impressive power density, surpassing that of our closest competitor by a significant share. This heightened power density enables the integration of hydrogen technology into a wider range of heavy-duty applications. We are maximizing the potential impact of the technology.” said Brendelberger.
Scaling up production
The factory will enable zepp.solutions to scale up their production to 1,000 systems annually, leading to the creation of approximately 100 sustainable jobs in the hydrogen sector within the region. By focusing on the production of their zero-emission fuel cell systems, zepp.solutions also significantly contributes to the region’s ambition to become the leading European hydrogen hub.
About zep
Zepp.solutions is a young Dutch company specialised in fuel cell technology. We support our partners, who are active in a wide variety of industries, in turning their zero-emission dreams into reality. We are specialised in creating fuel cell modules that fully integrate everything that is needed to use hydrogen as the power source in any application, ranging from control hard- and software to a DCDC converter for high voltage applications. Using our modules, integrating a hydrogen-powertrain into your application no longer requires extensive in-house hydrogen knowledge or spending the large amounts of time and money associated with hydrogen R&D.
About JTF:
The Just Transition Fund (JTF) contributes to the transition to a climate-neutral Europe. The main objective of the JTF is to enable regions that depend heavily on income and employment from fossil fuels to enter into an energy transition in a just and equal way. A transition that takes into account social, economic and environmental impacts.
The JTF is a Dutch national program, the implementation is organized regionally. The Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) and Social Affairs and Employment (SZW), provinces and municipalities are joining forces to jointly shape and implement the JTF program. In the Netherlands, six areas are involved: Groot-Rijnmond, Groningen, IJmond, West-Brabant, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and Zuid-Limburg.
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