ENERTRAG AG, project developer and supplier of sustainable energy from renewable sources and McPhy Energy today announced that as of October 1st , 2013, McPhy Energy Deutschland GmbH will take over the development and manufacturing of electrolyzers as well as the employees of ENERTRAG HyTec GmbH. McPhy and ENERTRAG will work jointly to develop economic wind-hydrogen solutions.

The large-scale electrolyzers from HyTec, which will be known as McPhy Deutschland, range in power from 500 kW to multiple MW. They are successfully used for example in the much-heralded Prenzlau Hybrid Power Plant built by ENERTRAG, showing that a demand-driven energy supply from renewable resources is possible. The interest for this electrolysis technology, however, is global. McPhy intends to expand the activities in the state of Brandenburg, Germany.

The HyTec large-scale electrolysis systems address a key challenge of renewable electric energy, production of which at times can be in excess of immediate demand or for one reason or another cannot be integrated into the electricity grid. The solution is to convert the electrical energy through electrolysis of water into hydrogen, a chemical energy carrier (in a process referred to as power-to-gas) and oxygen. Hydrogen, now generated carbon-free, can either be: injected into the natural gas-grid; used as valuable raw material in industry; or drive future zero-emission mobility in fuel cell technology.

McPhy Energy’s core expertise is its innovative technology for storing hydrogen in a solid state, based on magnesium hydrides. In January 2013, McPhy also acquired another electrolysis specialist, PIEL of Italy, which specializes in smaller electrolyzer systems ranging up to 500 kW.

Read the full press release.