On 25 October 2023, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Michael Theurer, Member of the German Bundestag, presented a funding notification amounting to a total of around €1.3 million to the Stuttgart-based greentech company GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems, for the implementation of fuel cell-powered industrial trucks.
- Joint funding project of GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems and other partners for the further development of fuel cell technology in industrial trucks in practical use
- Duration: From October 2023 to January 2025
- Amount of funding for GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems: Approximately 1.3 million euros
- Michael Theurer, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, hands over the funding notification to the team of GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems
“Projects like that of GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems GmbH make an important contribution to also advancing hydrogen and fuel cell technology in the field of intralogistics and to strengthening alternative drive technologies. By promoting such projects, the German government is striving to advance the energy transition in the field of transport in a sustainable and economically sensible way,” emphasised Michael Theurer.
The “XLP80Mbedded” project is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport within the scope of the National Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP) with a total of approximately 1.3 million euros. The funding guideline is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).
The aim of the project is to further develop hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems in industrial trucks to meet the increased demands for performance and efficiency of industry. The results will also be applied to work together in the Clean Intralogistics Net (CIN) on standards for the use of fuel cell technology in intralogistics. The CIN is an association of twelve companies that have set themselves the goal of making materials handling technologies and their infrastructure in industry, at airports and ports cleaner with lower emissions and, in the long term, more economical.
GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems has developed its own fuel cell system which is specifically designed for use in intralogistics – the GLOBE XLP80. This system is CE-certified and is manufactured in Stuttgart at the GLOBE production facility.
With the use of hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems in intralogistics, considerable increases in productivity are achieved. These systems can be refuelled with hydrogen in less than 5 minutes and can be used immediately afterwards. This eliminates hours of battery charging time. Consequently, the downtimes of intralogistics vehicles are reduced, the number of required vehicles is thereby kept to a minimum and the flexibility of the entire system is increased. In addition, the fuel cell system continuously delivers consistent power – unlike conventional lead-acid batteries, which show a drop in performance from a charge level of less than 50%. In addition, the GLOBE XLP80 also avoids the issue of management of peak power demand as is the case with the fast charging of newer lithium-ion batteries. In addition, the elimination of battery swap stations and swap sheds provides more space for the customer’s own value-added processes.
Alongside the technical advantages of the fuel cell, each system has an integrated GLOBE DataCore. This enables the online transmission of various performance and sensor data to the cloud. The data obtained in this way ensures optimised operation and high availability of the systems, as, for example, the need for and scope of maintenance can be anticipated in advance.
With the Hydrogen Strategy, published in June 2020 and updated in July 2023, the German government is supporting the field of hydrogen even more extensively than in the past. The initiative pursues both ecological and economic goals. Ecologically, the energy transition is to be extended to include the use of green hydrogen as an energy carrier. In addition, hydrogen and fuel cell technology are to be developed into a new, industrial field of competence in Germany that will secure prosperity and jobs. The project of GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems and the partners makes a valuable contribution to this.
Contact person:
Ralf Glaser, Tel.: +49 (0) 151 586 123 88,
Further information on GLOBE Fuel Cell Systems is available at:
www.globefuelcell.com