(Saerbeck) – Enapter AG has started the construction of its announced mass production facility for electrolyzers with a groundbreaking ceremony. On 82.000 square meters, a “Enapter campus“. As reported, the company wants to produce 2023 AEM electrolyzers (Anion Exchange Membrane) there per month from 10.000. Warehouses, offices and laboratories for research and development will also be created. The company explained in October that the company premises would be operated entirely with renewable energies from Saerbeck's solar, wind and biomass systems as well as its own solar systems and hydrogen storage systems.
It's the masses that do it
“In order to achieve global climate goals, we now need speed in scaling existing technologies in order to massively reduce the costs of green hydrogen,” said Enapter CEO Sebastian-Justus Schmidt. The climate crisis can only be brought under control with compact, modular AEM electrolysers – “no matter the size”. The automated mass production of electrolyzers is intended to ensure that “green hydrogen quickly becomes competitive”
The construction is the responsibility of the family-run company Goldbeck. The schedule stipulates that production can start gradually as early as the fourth quarter of 2022. According to current plans, around 300 new jobs will be created in Saerbeck.
According to the information, the investment costs amount to around 105 million euros. Enapter receives funding from the Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia EUR 9,36 million for the development of machines. According to an announcement in June, the company will receive grants of 7,3 million euros in the years 2021 to 2023, and the rest in the years 2024 to 2025.
The company Enapter, which was founded just a few years ago, says it already supplies customers in over 40 countries worldwide with its own standardized and patented AEM electrolysers. From 420, Enapter will connect 2022 of the electrolysis stacks to form a hydrogen generator “AEM Multicore”, which will reach the megawatt scale for the first time.
Saerbeck won the “NRW Climate Municipality of the Future” competition in 2009. The community wants to be climate neutral by 2030. A bioenergy park was developed from a former ammunition depot, producing enough energy from wind, sun and biomass to cover Saerbeck's needs more than twice. Therefore, Enapter decided to build the factory at this location.
Photos
Enapter management in action (from left to right): Gerrit Kaufhold, Jan-Justus Schmidt, Vaitea Cowan, Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, Thomas Chrometzka, Philip Hainbach. © Enapter AG
