German-Chinese green hydrogen company RCT Hydrogen has started operations at a new production facility in Saarbrücken, Germany. The factory is part of a joint venture with Brück, a German manufacturer of forged and ring-rolled products for industrial applications. The facility is expected to produce electrolysis systems with a combined annual capacity of 250 MW.
“We can see that companies need concrete solutions to address the bottlenecks of availability and cost – not in ten years, but ideally yesterday,” said Peter Fath, founder of the RCT Group. “Eliminating dependence on imports by producing hydrogen locally can be a decisive factor in this regard.”
According to RCT, production at the Saarbrücken facility will begin with the assembly of a 5 MW electrolyzer in June 2026. The system is scheduled for delivery and commissioning later that year at a German industrial site. The company said additional projects with a combined electrolysis capacity exceeding 30 MW are currently in development.
The new facility will also include a 2.5 MW electrolysis demonstration plant. The hydrogen produced there could eventually replace natural gas currently used by Brück in high-temperature industrial processes.
“We see this as an opportunity to integrate hydrogen into production,” said Frederic Scholl, head of business development at Brück. “This would be a first step away from fossil fuels in the industrial production of forged steel components.”
In addition to conventional equipment sales, RCT Hydrogen is pursuing a “hydrogen-as-a-service” business model. Under this approach, the company and its partners build and operate hydrogen production systems directly at customer sites. Industrial customers then purchase hydrogen at contractually agreed prices without investing in electrolysis infrastructure themselves. RCT Hydrogen said the model could help accelerate adoption in energy-intensive industries.
The company said hydrogen prices remain around 20% to 50% higher per kWh than natural gas. However, it argued that the gap can be partly offset by existing carbon pricing, which currently stands at around €83/t of CO₂. RCT Hydrogen also pointed to the growing share of renewable energy in the electricity mix, which it expects to reduce green hydrogen production costs over the long term.
RCT Hydrogen is headquartered in Konstanz and operates as a joint venture. The RCT Group holds a 51% stake, while Chinese manufacturer Jiangsu Guofu Hydrogen Energy Technology & Equipment Co. Ltd. owns the remaining 49% through its wholly owned German subsidiary, GF Hydrogen Europe GmbH.
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