The technology and manufacturing services agreement will see the pair produce 1,000 units of the system, which produces hydrogen from sunlight and water.

Building on a November 2025 memorandum of understanding and prior collaboration agreements, the agreement will use pilot data and process learnings from US-based SunHydrogen’s trial system to address manufacturing flaws.

The pilot system at the University of Texas’ Hydrogen Protohub encountered performance shortfalls against initial targets.

CTF Solar is a Germany-based subsidiary of the China National Building Materials Group, specialising in photovoltaic technology.

The solar hydrogen panel centres on what the company calls photoelectrosynthetically active heterostructures (PAH), which it combines in their billions to create the solar hydrogen panels.

The PAH cells utilise sunlight to drive photoelectrochemical water splitting, and a proprietary catalyst boosts the process, increasing the production of both elements, lowering energy losses, and improving durability.

SunHydrogen envisages its nascent technology positioning it as a major technology supplier in a new hydrogen economy.

Tim Young, CEO of SunHydrogen, hailed the agreement as a critical step towards industrialising the technology, saying the company’s next step involves finding an initial offtaker.

Increasing research and development efforts are being put into direct solar-to-hydrogen pathways, the proponents of which say it can provide green hydrogen from just sunlight and water, unlocking reduced operating costs and efficiency gains.

A wave of companies is in the early stages of developing technologies in this field. While many are promising they are largely unproven at scale.