Charles Leclerc shone in the Styrian spotlight to take the Grand Prix’s chequered flag and close the gap to title rival and current World Champion Max Verstappen in this year’s championship.

A bumper crowd of more than 300,000 fans attended across the race weekend from July 8-10, largely buoyed by masses of Verstappen’s adoring ‘Orange Army’ support in the grandstands.

Behind the scenes, a hero of a very different kind was being made as the H2Genset hydrogen fuel cell system from SFC Energy was used to power a mobile merchandising booth for all of those fans.

Just a few months earlier, in April this year, SFC Energy AG – a leading supplier of hydrogen and methanol fuel cells for stationary and mobile hybrid power solutions – had signed a cooperation agreement for with Test-Fuchs GmbH and Auto AG Group for the development of the mobile and emission-free generator H2Genset.

It was then used by the Red Bull Ring circuit for the race weekend in Spielberg, with several hundred thousand visitors able to experience the H2Genset reliably and autonomously supplying a mobile merchandising sales booth with energy – without emitting environmentally harmful exhaust gases or fine dust.

The booth at the north-western entrance to the Red Bull Ring event area consisted, among other things, of a merchandise sales booth and a demonstrator of a H2Genset (peak power: 10kW, continuous power: 5kW). Using an EFOY Hydrogen fuel cell, the H2Genset functioned as a flexible and mobile energy generator and supplied the entire booth with energy, even without access to the conventional power grid. Among these was a cash terminal, which was critical in order to buy or sell the merchandise offered.

The use of the H2Genset meant that all sales floor components requiring energy, from lighting to refrigerator, could also be operated continuously and reliably.

The significance of the achievement was not lost on Dr. Peter Podesser, CEO of SFC Energy AG, who reflected, “We are one of the innovation and technology leaders in the fuel cell industry. We have already sold more than 55,000 units of our multi-award-winning products worldwide and have thus been actively contributing to driving global decarbonisation and race-to-zero for years

“Formula 1 has also set ambitious goals in 2019 with ‘Net Zero Carbon by 2030’ and only recently promised to use 100% sustainable fuels from 2026. We are therefore proud that we have already been able to actively cooperate with the Red Bull Ring: With our H2Genset, which we developed in collaboration with our partners Test-Fuchs and Auto AG, we operated an emission-free merchandising booth together with the Red Bull Ring.

“In close proximity to the race track, we showed all Formula 1 fans how we can simplify the generation of climate-friendly energy with the help of our products.”

Going forward, three models of the H2Genset with peak power outputs of 10kW to 20kW are scheduled to be launched initially; the launch of a fourth model with a peak power output of over 50kW is planned for 2023.

During the 72-hour race weekend, SFC Energy, Test-Fuchs and Auto AG gathered extensive experience in the use of the climate-friendly generator in the outdoor event sector and measured its power and temperature curves over several days; the three cooperation partners will use these results to explore any potential for optimisation in advance of the launches of the emission-free generators.