Ministry of Economy supports development of competence center for fuel cells and batteries in Barleben with 2.87 million euros

The Japanese Horiba Group is currently investing around 30 million euros inits site in Barleben. By the end of 2021, the Group's subsidiary Horiba FuelCon GmbH will build a new plant at Technologiepark Ostfalen, and the site is to be developed into a "Global Competence Center for Fuel Cells and Batteries" with up to 250 new jobs in the coming years. The Ministry of Economy of Saxony-Anhalt is now supporting the development of the new competence center with 2.87 million euros from investment funding, the so-called Joint Task "Improvement of the Regional Economic Structure" (GRW).

"We are focusing specifically on future technologies in Saxony-Anhalt. With its competence center for fuel cells and batteries, Horiba FuelCon is not only strengthening the automotive location in northern Saxony-Anhalt in the long term, the company is also creating high-quality jobs at its new plant and will cooperate closely with local research institutions," Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Economy Prof. Dr. Armin Willingmann explained on Monday. Through closer networking of business and science as well as tailored economic development, Saxony-Anhalt has become an attractive location for national and international investors such as the Horiba Group, he said, particularly in the past four years. "We want to consistently continue this course and further develop Saxony-Anhalt into a state of future technologies," Willingmann said.

According to Horiba FuelCon, the new plant will have a production area of 7,000 square meters, and a new office building is also being built. Construction is expected to be completed and the move to the new facility will take place at the end of the year. "For more than 20 years, HORIBA FuelCon has been developing test systems for the energy of tomorrow and has thus actively shaped the development of sustainable energy generation and supply," explained, Dr. Ingo Benecke, Managing Director of Horiba FuelCon GmbH. "With the current transformation of the automotive industry towards electric drives, there is such a massive demand for our test solutions worldwide that the new factory will enable us to meet the demands of the market and also fulfill our responsibility as Global Competence Center for Fuel Cells and Batteries within the Horiba Group. We therefore also see the new site as an investment in the future and are proud that the state of Saxony-Anhalt is actively supporting us in its realization."

In addition to Horiba FuelCon's center of excellence, a new research center of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg will also be built at Technologiepark Ostfalen by the end of 2023. In the "Center for Method Development" (CMD), which will be equipped with several test benches, research will be carried out in the future on environmentally compatible drive systems. The Ministry of Economy of Saxony-Anhalt is providing the university with a total of 31 million euros for the CMD. "The CMD research center will enable national and international companies from the automotive and supplier industries to cooperate in the future - this will once again enhance the attractiveness of the location and could result in further companies settling here," explained Willingmann. The Technology Park is already home to the Institute for Competence in AutoMobility (IKAM) and the Magdeburg Innovation and Start-up Center (IGZ).

In the summer of 2020, Willingmann honored the Ostfalen Technology Park in Barleben with its attractive development prospects as part of the location marketing offensive of the Investment and Marketing Company (IMG) as a "Center of Excellence".

Source: mw.sachsen-anhalt.de