``We don't want to be your neighbor, we want to be your builder, the builder of that new 21st century industrial base that is required for the United States and for the world to solve the energy problems,'' Ovshinsky said.

Roger Stempel, chief executive officer of ECD-Ovonics and former chairman of General Motors, was cheered when he announced the new name for the limited liability corporation.

``We're adding one word, and that's Akron -- Ovonic Hydrogen Systems-Akron.''

The city of Akron purchased the the old Akron Steel Treating Co. site at South Broadway and Bartges Street for $680,000. The owners have expanded at another location within the city.

Akron is giving the Michigan-based company use of the building with an option to lease or buy after five years. The state has contributed a $5 million package of money and tax credits, and the project also received $2.5 million in the fiscal year 2005 federal defense appropriations bill.

Testing will create about 25 jobs initially and could lead to making the tanks in Akron, which could produce 300 jobs in five to six years, said Jeffrey Wilhite, Akron's deputy director of planning and urban development.

Wilhite said the company will spend about $7.2 million to renovate the building, which should begin in one to two months. The company will spend an additional $2.5 million to build a hydrogen refueling station next to the building, the first in Ohio, as a model for how drivers could refuel hydrogen-powered cars.

Ovshinsky's company specializes in research and development of alternative energy technologies that include solid hydrogen storage, fuel cells, thin-film solar cells and the nickel metal hydride batteries that power many hybrid vehicles.