Proton Motor Power Systems PLC on Monday said it signed a 15-year lease agreement for a facility to ‘substantially expand’ its manufacturing, testing and development capacity.

The Newcastle-based producer of hydrogen fuel cells and electric hybrid systems said the agreement is for a ‘modern’ 13,500-metre facility to supplement the company’s current 6,000 metre site in Puchheim, Germany, which will now become the development facility for stacks and hydrogen engines.

The total land surface of the new lease is 25,700 metres, of which over 13,500 metres is usable. Of this 10,500 metres will be dedicated to production, testing and development while the remainder will be devoted to office space.

This represents a seven-fold increase in the amount of space available for production compared to Proton Motor’s current premises.

The new facility is located in Fürstenfeldbruck, around 12 kilometres from Puchheim, and will also be the location of the company’s sales and marketing teams as well as the maintenance and training centre.

Chief Executive Officer Faiz Nahab said: ‘Hydrogen is the energy storage source of the future and awareness of this is increasing to a considerable extent both amongst the public and within industry. This creates a strong market-pull for associated technologies such as fuel cells. This is evidenced by discussions with existing customers for midterm batch orders.

‘With this background, the additional space provided by the new facility will give Proton Motor the required capacity to produce, test and deliver fuel cell hydrogen engines in line with this anticipated growing demand.’

Shares in Proton Motor were trading 2.7% higher at 11.29 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

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