German consortium launches hydrogen energy specialist evety
Horváth & Partners has teamed up with auditing and advisory specialists Tüv Süd and sustainable energy giant Open Grid Europe (OGE) to launch evety – a new firm specialising in the hydrogen economy.
Based out of Essen with plans to open an office in Munich by the end of 2020, evety has been conceptualised as the go to partner for businesses involved in the hydrogen ecosystem – largely from the logistics, mobility and energy sectors. Services range from one end to the other of the hydrogen production process – a key global priority in the coming decade.
Specifically, services will stretch from devising technical and viable hydrogen concepts to developing and implementing these projects, including commissioning and supervision. As the hydrogen ecosystem booms, evety will also be the point of contact for stakeholders from a variety of fields and sectors that are looking to get involved.
A joint venture by three firms, each brings a unique contribution to make up evety’s complete service offering. Horváth & Partners is a management consultancy specialised in organisation management and performance optimisation. Among Germany’s largest management consulting firms – and a member of global consulting alliance Cordence Worldwide – Horváth & Partners has a team of over 1,000 consultants working across offices in Europe.
“We are experts in corporate governance and transformation as well as in the development of business models and business areas of the future. Hydrogen is an area on which we consistently focus for the benefit of a sustainable economy,” said Michael Kieninger, CEO of Horváth & Partners.
Tüv Süd, based in Munich, offers testing, audits, certification and advisory services, specialising in the fields of safety, security and sustainability. According to Reiner Block, the CEO of the firm’s Industry Service Division, Tüv Süd has considerable experience testing and certifying hydrogen technology.
OGE, meanwhile, is among Europe’s leading energy companies, specialising in transmitting natural gas. The firm’s CEO Jórg Bergmann said that OGE’s 12,000 km network of transmission pipelines can be redeployed to transport green energy as its adoption picks up.
And it is most certainly picking up. Around the world, progress is being made in generating hydrogen through electrolysis – splitting water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. The only byproduct of this process is oxygen, while the electrolysis is powered through renewable energy, making it a net zero source. As a result, the hydrogen produced is labeled green hydrogen, and is a crucial investment for countries looking to meet the Paris Climate Accord targets by 2050.
Denmark recently set up the largest green hydrogen development facility in the world, and the development of a similar facility is underway in the Netherlands as well. The German government has announced plans to become a leader in the segment. To this end, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics pledged €9 billion to promote green hydrogen technology in the country, and a hydrogen laboratory has already been established in Dithmarschen –– receiving €30 million in subsidies since inception.
With such clear intent – backed by investments – the energy ecosystem is looking to explore the potential of green hydrogen. Leveraging the track record of its co-founders, evety is positioning itself to become a partner of choice.
Service offerings
The offerings of evety include strategic support, including building technical and economic feasibility plans for the application of hydrogen technologies.; implementation support, project development and implementation of hydrogen projects through to commissioning; and innovation, including the creation of new ecosystems through cross-sector networking.
The company is led by Klaus Altfeld (formerly at BCG Platinion) and based in Essen, with plans to open another location in Munich by the end of the year.