Four companies are joining forces to realize a world first in green hydrogen. On a site in Namur, Belgium, they will build in 2026 the world’s first ‘commercial’ solar hydrogen park based on Belgian Solhyd technology, catching ‘green hydrogen’ directly from the air with sunlight.
By choosing Namur, not a sunnier spot like the desert, but right in the middle of the damp heart of Europe, Solhyd is sending a message: clean hydrogen can work anywhere, for anyone. If the system can thrive under Belgium’s grey skies, the next revolution in green hydrogen may well start from the most unexpected place.
The solar hydrogen park is built by Solhyd, in partnership with Nippon Gases, Ether Energy, and SunBuild. Solhyd provides the hydrogen panels, Nippon Gases handles hydrogen capture, purification, and safe storage, and Ether Energy operates the site. SunBuild integrates the solar and battery systems that power it.
Quarter of a football field
The Namur solar-hydrogen park will initially cover roughly 1,000 square metres, which is about a quarter of a football field. It will be fitted with around 160 to 170 hydrogen panels connected to small-scale compression and storage units.
The total capacity is estimated at 50 kilowatts, enough to generate about three kilograms of hydrogen per day, or roughly 1,000 kilograms per year. The partners plan to expand the system over time to around 2 megawatts, equivalent to more than 6,000 panels and an annual output of 40 tonnes of green hydrogen.
The initial investment is expected to be in the range of €3 to €4 million, funded through a mix of private capital, regional innovation programs, and industrial support.
A drop in the energy ocean?
The park’s first phase, around 50 kilowatts, will produce only a few kilograms of hydrogen per day, a drop in the energy ocean. But the goal isn’t volume. It’s validation.
Engineers can monitor, refine, and certify every part of the system under real-world conditions, close to Solhyd’s R&D base in Leuven and its new pilot manufacturing line supported by the Belgian tech centre Sirris.
The Namur project may be small, but its implications are enormous. It challenges the assumption that hydrogen must come from massive, centralized electrolysis plants tied to power grids and water pipelines.
Instead, it points toward a future of modular, decentralized hydrogen production, where energy can be generated anywhere — as easily as installing solar panels today.
How does it work?
Globally, hydrogen production is one of the dirtiest corners of the energy system. Around 95 percent of the world’s hydrogen is still produced from fossil fuels, mostly natural gas, through a process that releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide —roughly 2 percent of total global CO₂ emissions —comparable to the entire aviation sector.
Solhyd’s technology offers a radical alternative. Instead of burning fossil fuels or consuming electricity and water, it uses only sunlight and air. In lab tests, the company’s panels achieved around 15 percent solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, producing roughly 250 litres of hydrogen gas per day —about 6 kg per year —from a 1.5 m² device, roughly the size of a solar panel.
At first glance, a Solhyd panel looks much like a solar panel. But instead of generating electricity, it produces hydrogen directly. Inside, sunlight activates a special semiconductor layer that drives a photocatalytic reaction, splitting water molecules (H₂O) into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂).
The water isn’t poured in; it’s harvested from ambient air through a built-in absorber that condenses moisture even at low humidity. The oxygen is released harmlessly into the air, while the hydrogen gas is collected through a small outlet and piped to storage tanks.
Because the process runs on sunlight and humidity alone, it needs no external water supply, no grid connection, and no moving parts. Each panel works as a small, autonomous hydrogen generator, a modular system that can be scaled up simply by adding more panels, just as we do with solar PV today.
Better with more sun
At the Namur site, these panels will operate in arrays, capturing moisture and converting it directly into green hydrogen — a truly off-grid, off-water renewable system.
The ultimate vision stretches far beyond Namur. Once validated in Belgium’s difficult conditions, Solhyd plans to expand into sun-rich regions such as southern Spain, North Africa, and Namibia, where the company is already exploring pilot projects.
In such locations, where solar radiation is nearly double Belgium’s and coastal humidity remains high, each panel could produce up to 10 kilograms of hydrogen per year — slashing costs to as low as €3 per kilogram, roughly competitive with fossil-based “grey hydrogen.”
But there are still big hurdles to take. Despite its promise, Solhyd’s technology still faces the classic hurdles of a breakthrough on the edge of commercialization. The panels work, but production is limited to small pilot batches — far from the scale that attracts major investors.
Costs remain high, with hydrogen still several times more expensive than fossil-based alternatives, and long-term outdoor durability data is only now being gathered in Namur.
The market, too, is immature: hydrogen infrastructure is still built around large industrial users, not decentralized producers. And while the science is solid, investors are cautious — preferring established, gigawatt-scale technologies over new systems without proven supply chains or certification. In short, Solhyd’s hydrogen panels have moved beyond the lab, but not yet into the comfort zone of big capital.
The start: spin-off at KU Leuven
Solhyd grew out of nearly two decades of research at KU Leuven, one of Europe’s leading universities for energy science. The project began in the early 2010s under the leadership of Professor Johan Martens and his team, who were experimenting with ways to produce hydrogen directly from sunlight and atmospheric moisture.
In 2022, the team spun out the research from KU Leuven to form Solhyd NV, aiming to transform a scientific breakthrough into an industrial product.
Supported by Flemish innovation programs and partners such as Sirris, the company began building its first pilot production line to manufacture hydrogen panels at scale. The Namur park is the first public demonstration of that effort — the bridge between university research and real-world deployment.
