Meeting with German Honorary Consul Sebastian-Justus Schmidt

On March 5th, we had the honor of welcoming Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, the German Honorary Consul of Chiang Mai, to our R&D facility on Wualai Road.

A Shared Vision for Clean Energy

Sebastian is well known beyond his consular role — as the founder of Enapter AG, he has been a driving force in the hydrogen economy, developing modular AEM electrolyser technology that is making green hydrogen production accessible at every scale. His work at Enapter shares a core philosophy with what we’re doing at buildfor.life: making critical technology open, modular, and built to last.

Lab Tour and Project Discussion

We gave him a full walkthrough of our lab — the automated test bench, our GaN-based 48V MPPT converter prototypes, the pick-and-place line, and the testing equipment we’ve assembled here in Chiang Mai. We talked through our vision for open-source, long-lifetime electronics and how our 48VDC ecosystem could play a role in decentralized energy systems.

The conversation naturally turned to where our work might intersect. Hydrogen electrolysis, solar power electronics, and resilient off-grid infrastructure share a lot of common ground — efficient DC power conversion, robust thermal management, and systems designed to run reliably for decades, not years.

Exploring Collaboration

We discussed potential areas of collaboration between buildfor.life and Sebastian’s network. The overlap between open-source power electronics and hydrogen infrastructure is real — from solar-powered electrolyser systems to DC bus architectures that integrate storage, generation, and load management.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but the conversation was genuinely exciting. Having someone with Sebastian’s experience and vision take an interest in what a small R&D team in Chiang Mai is building is both validating and motivating.

We look forward to continuing the dialogue and seeing where this connection leads.