MAN commits up to €500 million in hydrogen

H-TEC SYSTEMS will make PEM electrolyzers.

MAN Energy Solutions will invest up to €500 million over the next few years in its hydrogen subsidiary, H-Tec Systems, to make the company into a mass producer of PEM electrolyzers as quickly as possible, the company said.

“We are transforming H-Tec Systems into one of the world’s leading players in the field of PEM electrolysis,” said MAN Energy Solutions CEO Uwe Lauber. “Over the next five to ten years, green hydrogen will become one of the most important primary energy sources for the global economy as it continues to decarbonize.”

H-Tec Systems will make PEM electrolyzers, one of the most important processes for industrially scaled hydrogen production from renewable energy sources, he said.

“The technology is mature and has already been placed on the market successfully. The next step is therefore to scale and set up highly automated serial production – and we would like to make rapid progress with this,” he said.

The subsidiary benefits from the global sales network and the experience of MAN Energy Solutions.

Gunnar Kilian, chairman of the supervisory board of MAN Energy Solutions, said hydrogen will play a key roll in international shipping and industrial processes. “It is therefore essential for our subsidiary MAN Energy Solutions to continue to strengthen its strategic position in the future market for power-to-X technology and synthetic fuels with investment in hydrogen production,” he said.

Robin von Plettenberg, previously head of the turbomachinery service business at MAN Energy Solutions, is coming on board as chief executive officer (CEO) and chief sales officer (CSO). Frank Zimmermann will be the company’s chief financial officer (CFO). Marius Zasche, previously head of components business at MAN, was named chief technology & operations Officer (CTO/ COO).

“The market for hydrogen production from renewable energy sources is currently focused on decentralized production and local use,” said Robin von Plettenberg. “Over the next few years, we will see increasingly larger projects, such as those for integrating entire wind farms. We are increasingly expecting projects on a scale of over 100 megawatts and, in the medium term, are also predicting structural changes in the market for multi-gigawatt large-scale plants, which are used in particular to export hydrogen and supply industrial sectors worldwide.”

The company said it plans to hire additional staff and is based in Augsburg and the Braak municipality in Schleswig-Holstein. “Over the past few years, we have already greatly expanded our workforce and doubled the number of employees in 2021 alone,” states Frank Zimmermann. “This growth will continue, and we are planning to hire several hundred highly qualified members of staff over the next few years, especially in development and production.”