“We provide the foundation for scalable hydrogen”
In this interview, he explains why digitalisation is far more than a ‘nice to have’, how Siemens is helping accelerate the rollout of electrolyser factories, and why reference projects like GeoPura are paving the way for broader adoption. Siemens will not only be a hosting partner at hy-fcell 2025, but will also present the latest solutions for production, mobility and system integration.
Mr. Atkinson, Siemens talks about “shaping the future with clean hydrogen.” What does this mean specifically for you – and what contribution does Siemens make along the hydrogen value chain?
For me, I think that this means that we want to be driver pushing this adoption process forward, we want to be a partner and enabler in this business working with everyone to help push Hydrogen into mainstream usage.
In terms of what Siemens does, well, that is a long answer, we do a lot.
But maybe I should start with what we don’t do as this gets a lot of people confused, we do not build electrolysers, fuel cells or turnkey plants, that is all done by a business that was carved out from Siemens AG over 3-4 years ago.
However back to what we do. The main three drivers for what Siemens does is focused around, Electrification, Automation and Digitalization.
What does that mean? Well we help people develop and deliver the grid solutions for plants, we do automation from the factory, through to small and large scale plants, with the associated unit controls also included, and going parallel to all of that is our digitalisation offerings, being able to create digital twins of the factory, the plant, the filling station, the individual machines within a manufacturing process, or even looking within the stack.
On top of those three main drivers, we also have offerings around consultancy and financing available.
So as said, it is a lot.
The competitiveness of green hydrogen remains a major challenge. How does Siemens help sustainably reduce production costs?
Well there are many measures. Even before an OEM is thinking about building an electrolyser or fuel cell stack production, we can work with them to help them design the factory itself, we have over the years built a lot of factories and we have created what we call the ‘Power Stack specification’ specifically for Hydrogen customers. To simplify it down it is essentially painting by numbers. We have taken the knowledge and experience that we have gathered over decades and address those challenges out there that cause headaches when bringing a factory online. By creating a factory specification for the OEM to provide to the machine builders we can help them save time and money in commissioning, integration, and then in operating the factory being built.
All of this can be integrated together with an energy management solution that can help OEM’s control costs and if they implement SiGreen, also enables them to calculate the product carbon footprint of their product.
When we then look at the products then being built, I think the word is scalable, we offer solutions within our Hydrogen Application Framework that can take our customers from a very small operation and help them expand to the size that they want to grow to, from a 1 MW electrolyser through to maybe a 100MW skid. The Framework itself is templates and libraries within our TIA Portal that have a portion of the design work already predefined so that engineers do not need to repeat themselves again and again, making OEM’S more efficient with their time and money.
Then moving to the next step of the plant itself again here we have tools that can be used to help bring costs down, with our Hydrogen Technology Stack we can help EPC’s and End users in the design phase to already start optimising their designs and help calculate the end use case.
Likewise in the operational phase with tools such as our Cell Voltage Measurement module and Hydrogen Performance Suite we can help everyone across the value chain gain insights to both plant and electrolyser operations to make improvements
As you can see there are a multitude of small steps everywhere that we can use to deliver a big difference.
The construction of hydrogen plants is considered complex, lengthy and risky. What role do digitalization, automation and standardization play in this – and how does Siemens meet these challenges?
Everything, I sometimes think that people see digitalisation as a nice to have but it really is more than that. With the power that we have today in our tools we have the ability to simulate end to end system use cases to really show how a proposed solution can work.
Let’s say that the city of Stuttgart is planning on installing Hydrogen buses on 5 routes, they know the buses that they want to buy, the fuel cell in them, and the routes that they want the busses to take. With a tool such as Amesim we can help them calculate how much H2 they will need to have available to make that work as well as the required tanking solution.
Likewise, they then want to source the H2 from a solar and wind plant in say Karlsruhe, we again can calculate the weather conditions in Karlsruhe over a number of years to work out how often the H2 needs to be transported from KA to S to fulfil the bus use case.
In a time where there is so much uncertainty around offtake and economic viability, digitalisation can provide the means to give weight behind a proposal.
Likewise, as I mentioned just before the scalable automation within the Hydrogen Application Framework enables customers to design once and build many with only small adjustments required.
What concerns or uncertainties do project developers or operators typically approach Siemens with - and how do you help translate these into reliable solutions?
Project developers and operators in the hydrogen space often come to us with concerns around technology scalability, efficiency, integration with existing infrastructure, and long-term viability — especially given the relative nascency and complexity of green hydrogen projects.
One key uncertainty is how to de-risk early-stage investments while ensuring systems remain flexible for future scale-up. There’s also significant demand for clarity on system performance, interoperability across the value chain, and grid stability when incorporating variable renewable energy sources.
At Siemens, we help turn these uncertainties into reliable outcomes by combining our deep domain expertise with a systems-level approach. For example, we provide tailored solutions to different project sizes, and integrate them with advanced automation, digital twins, and grid management technologies.
The aim is again to make plants replicable; many operators plan to replicate their first designs many times to facilitate scaling up, and again here the Digital Hydrogen Plant helps not just in the engineering but also with the long term operation, with the added insights offered by the Hydrogen Performance Suite also reducing the LCOH cost.
Beyond hardware, we support developers through feasibility studies, simulations, and long-term service concepts that ensure performance, efficiency, and bankability — ultimately helping them move from concept to commercial operation with confidence. Our global footprint and experience in complex infrastructure projects allow us to guide clients not just as a supplier, but as a strategic partner throughout the project lifecycle.
Siemens offers solutions along the entire hydrogen value chain – from planning to operation. In your opinion, which services are currently particularly relevant for customers?
I suppose I am talking about digital solutions a lot but again I cannot emphasis enough how much this helps in this field especially where we are currently in the hydrogen industry.
Maybe another use case example here coming back to the factory.
The electrolyser / fuel cell has only really been a commercially viable product in the last 5 years, I speak to a lot of OEM’s and if there is one thing that they all agree upon it is that the product being built now is not the same as the product that will be building in 5 years' time. Now think of where we are in that journey and let’s compare it to something everyone can grab hold of. Back in the late 1800’s the first combustion engines were developed and think about what that looked like and how that operated, this is where we are with commercially viable electrolysers and fuel cells, at the very beginning of that ramp of development cycles. Now think about how many changes and iterations have gone into that product between then and what we have in our vehicles today, it would be unrecognisable to those pioneers back then.
So, what has this got to do with digitalisation, well every design change and improvement to that product will require a change in the production process. Every change in the production process comes with downtimes, risk and costs. However, if we have digital twin of that factory today with the first build, then we have a blueprint that can be used to help with any changes in the production process.
A change within the stack might require a change in the membrane machine, of course an OEM can just change it out, but they will have no idea of any knock-on effects it may have on the rest of the plant. It could be that by changing that one machine that the throughput changes and then another problem will arise with say the Decal and so onwards. With the digital twin we can simulate this change ahead of any down time, identify all of the issues that could arise, and help the OEM do all required changes at once rather than finding out 1 month later that they have a series of other issues in their process due to that one design change.
That is why digitalisation is so important.
With GeoPura you have an exciting reference in the “Energy-as-a-Service” sector. What particularly impressed you about this project – and what can you derive from it for other H₂ projects?
I am so happy you asked me about this company; they are a business that I love to talk about for a large variety of reasons. I think that what I love the most about GeoPura is their innovation and their vision on how to deliver it. They are attacking a very important market and a very large one at that. They are looking to replace diesel generators with green alternatives. When we talk about decarbonisation well one of the areas that must be converted is this market, all the back-up power solutions for data centres, hospitals, temporary power solutions for festivals or events, residential use cases in isolated regions. The list goes on…. And the global diesel gen market today is around 17 billion € and growing. To be honest I am surprised that not more is going on in this field.
But where GeoPura are probably most innovative it is in their business model, they aren’t selling their HPU’s (Hydrogen Power units) on, they are selling the electricity that they produce, hence where a lot of people are uncertain about the technology of Hydrogen they are saying that is something you don’t have to worry about, we look after the technology you just tell us how much electricity you require for your use case.
I think Andy Cunningham and his team are on the right path and I wish them the best of success in the future.
Now where is this important for other H2 projects, well I think it is around adoption and risk. People are conservative and don’t like risk, if we can find ways to take that away then adoption will come quicker.
I was the other week in Canada visiting the Hydrogen Hubs in Vancouver, Trois Rivieres and Edmonton and one of the companies that I met there was doing something similar. They were installing a Hydrogen refuelling network for trucks but instead of waiting for potential customers they brought the trucks themselves and were leasing them out to companies where the usage use case made sense. They then controlled how much H2 they were producing and were able to then grow organically on a strong economic foundation.
And I think that this is where we need to get to. Innovative business model, risk sharing to enable early adoption, and when that happens then we will be able to have a more traditional business, but until then out of the box thinking is the way forward.
The hydrogen market is developing dynamically – both technologically and regulatory. How does Siemens help its customers make future-proof and scalable investments?
I always like to say we aren’t just selling the destination, but we are there for the journey and I would like to think that Siemens has proven itself over the years to be a trusted partner and that when we commit, we are in for the long haul, but maybe another example to Siemens commitment to Hydrogen.
In my first answer I mentioned that Siemens also does financing, and one of the projects we financed was Wunsiedel in Bavaria. What a lot of people don’t know though, is that Siemens also did the EPC on that plant. Now this isn’t something that we normally do, and it isn’t in our normal offering, but we did it here for a reason. We wanted to learn, we wanted to gain the experience of building one of these first Hydrogen plant, to experience the pain, to find out where the challenges are and find out what it means to build a plant and believe me learned we did.
That experience that we gained from building that plant has now been built into our offerings such as our Digital Hydrogen Plant so that whomever we work with can benefit from the insights that we gained.
Siemens will be represented as a hosting partner at hy-fcell in 2025 – with exhibition space and speakers at the conference. What can visitors expect from your appearance - and why is hy-fcell a central platform for the hydrogen future for you?
Our focus in hy-fcell will be predominantly around the factory aspect as well as solutions for mobility. However, the team present will be there to answer any question across the entire eco system.
As a global technology leader with a strong commitment to decarbonization and energy transition, Siemens views the hy-fcell as a strategic platform to engage with key stakeholders in the hydrogen value chain. The event brings together decision-makers, innovators, and partners who are shaping the future of green hydrogen — exactly the ecosystem we aim to collaborate with.
It’s important for us to be present where the dialogue is happening, not only to showcase our latest solutions, but also to listen, learn, and contribute to the industry’s direction. The hy-fcell plays a critical role in driving momentum, policy discussions, and investment in hydrogen — which is why Siemens considers it part of our mission and visibility in this rapidly evolving market.
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