The MAN division is to occupy the future business with hydrogen.
Munich MAN Energy Solutions wants to massively expand the hydrogen business. To this end, the VW subsidiary is investing 500 million euros in its subsidiary H-Tech Systems. “We want to expand hydrogen into a central pillar,” MAN Energy Solutions CEO Uwe Lauber told Handelsblatt.
The aim is to achieve sales of more than one billion euros with electrolysers by 2030 and to become one of the three largest suppliers worldwide. “We don’t want to mess around. Either we do it right or not at all.”
The long-established manufacturer of large engines, formerly known as MAN Diesel & Turbo, has been working on its own energy transition for some time. By 2030, the business with sustainable technologies should contribute more than 50 percent of sales. Currently it should be a good ten percent.
Hydrogen plays a key role here. The group wants to become the leading German supplier of hydrogen production plants. Last year, MAN Energy Solutions took over the electrolyser specialist H-Tec Systems.
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In this way, the group wants to offer its turnkey “Power-to-X” systems with its own electrolysers, for example, which can be used to produce green hydrogen, for example.
Millions of jobs from the hydrogen industry in the EU
The market potential is great. “In 2050, the market for hydrogen can be between 150 billion and one trillion dollars,” said future Linde boss Sanjiv Lamba to the Handelsblatt.
A correspondingly large number of production facilities have to be built. Local corporations such as MAN Energy Solutions and Siemens Energy are at the forefront of technology. According to a study commissioned by the EU Commission, more than 5.4 million jobs could be created in the European hydrogen industry by 2050.
But the industry must first be built up. “Currently nobody has the necessary production capacities for electrolysers. All providers are still in their infancy,” said Lauber.
The aim must be to get from manufacture to industrial series production as quickly as possible. To this end, MAN Energy Solutions will set up highly automated production capacities in northern Germany and Augsburg.
Propulsion systems for ships are also being prepared for hydrogen propulsion.
The demand for hydrogen is expected to increase enormously in the coming years, for example in the steel industry. According to experts, if Germany wants to achieve its climate goals, around a third of primary steel production will have to be converted to direct reduction technology with hydrogen by 2030, and all blast furnaces will have to be replaced by 2045. This requires huge amounts of hydrogen. MAN Energy Solutions could sell the systems directly to the steel producers, who would then set them up next to their plants.
MAN Energy Solutions covers a large part of the value chain, Lauber emphasized – from tank systems and compressors to electrolysers and turnkey plants.
H-Tec Systems is a specialist in PEM electrolysers (proton exchange membrane process). MAN Energy Solutions now wants to invest half a billion in the subsidiary over the next few years.
Strategic position in the future market for synthetic fuels
The move is also interesting from a corporate strategy perspective. According to industry circles, Volkswagen had actually sounded out a separation from MAN Energy Solutions because the division no longer seemed to fit in with the core business. But no suitable buyer was found.
The VW Group is now expressly committed to the growth plans. “On the way to climate neutrality, hydrogen plays a key role for sectors such as international shipping or industrial processes where direct electrification is not possible,” said VW Board Member Gunnar Kilian, who heads the MAN Energy Solutions Supervisory Board.
It is therefore essential that the subsidiary continues to strengthen its strategic position in the future market for Power-to-X and synthetic fuels. The common goal of climate neutrality can only be achieved in a coordinated effort. “MAN Energy Solutions is making a decisive contribution to this.”
Does this mean that MAN Energy Solutions will remain in the VW empire for the long term? In any case, Lauber says: “We are now even more visible in what we do in the Group thanks to the topic of hydrogen.” When scaling production, you can benefit a lot from VW expertise. “What a car manufacturer can really do is series production.”
MAN Energy Solutions anticipates that larger and larger hydrogen production plants will be built over the next few years, for example to connect entire wind farms. Projects in the range of more than 100 megawatts are expected. In the medium term there will also be a market for large multi-gigawatt systems.
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