Siemens Energy schedules hydrogen electrolyser production in Berlin

Siemens Energy has announced it will start industrial-scale hydrogen electrolyser production in Berlin, Germany. 2023 will see the start of the first gigawatt production at a multi-gigawatt factory.

New production lines for the electrolysers are being set up on 2,000 square meters at a cost of €30 million ($33 million).

Production will be located at Huttenstrasse in Berlin’s Moabit locality, where an existing production hall can be used.

The site currently manufactures gas turbines, which can be operated with up to 50% hydrogen. By 2030 complete hydrogen operation should be possible.

Christian Bruch, President and CEO of Siemens Energy, commented on the announcement in a statement, “We are pooling our knowledge in the field of various energy technologies in Berlin. For us, hydrogen is an important component of the future energy world.

“For this to be economically viable, the manufacturing costs for electrolysers must be significantly reduced. With our new production facility, we are helping to make hydrogen competitive sooner.”

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Electrolyser production

At the Berlin location, individual electrolyser cells will be manufactured and combined to form functional modules, or ‘stacks’.

Depending on the required capacity, these will then be assembled into larger process-based units.

In Germany, this last stage will take place at Mülheim, which is closely associated with and complements the new Berlin plant.

Production is being switched over to mass production, as affordable electrolysers are the prerequisite for being able to cover growing demand and the future costs of hydrogen.

PEM electrolysis

Siemens Energy is relying on proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis.

Water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen using a proton-permeable membrane and electricity from renewable sources. The key aspects of this process are its high level of efficiency, high product gas quality and reliable operation with no chemicals or impurities.

The latest and most powerful PEM electrolyser product line from Siemens Energy is optimised for applications up to the high hundreds of megawatts, enabling systems of this size to generate several metric tons of green hydrogen every hour.

The electricity used in electrolyser production will be sourced entirely from renewables.

Hydrogen as a key element in decarbonisation

Green hydrogen is a key element in the replacement of fossil fuels with renewables.

Hydrogen can serve as a storage medium and as a raw material for further applications, including synthetic fuels. However, hydrogen molecules can also be used directly as an energy source to generate electricity and heat, which have previously depended on gas.

In combination with a massive expansion of renewables, this is a way to ensure the success of the energy transition.

The pathways for producing green hydrogen and its derived products are known; the task now is to scale production to industrial volumes.