April 1 (Renewables Now) – Siemens Energy AG (ETR:ENR) is planning to start industrial-scale production of electrolysers for green hydrogen at a multi-gigawatt factory in Berlin next year.
The German energy company said on Thursday that it is working on a EUR-30-million (USD 33.3m) project to set up production lines for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers at its site in Huttenstrasse in Berlin that will be powered entirely with green electricity.
The plant currently manufactures gas turbines which are expected to switch to complete hydrogen operation by 2030. Now, the gas turbines are capable of operating on hydrogen at 50%.
At the Berlin site, Siemens Energy will host the mass production of individual electrolyser cells which will be combined into stacks. The stacks will then be put together into larger process-based units at the site in Muelheim. The Munich-based company noted that the electrolysers of its latest product line are suitable for applications up to the high hundreds of megawatts.
“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,” said chief executive Christian Bruch.
(EUR 1 = USD 1.110)
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