Siemens Energy is set to supply 12 electrolyzers with a total capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) to Air Liquide, which will use them for operation in its Normand’Hy project in Normandy, France, to produce renewable hydrogen.

The project is expected to generate 28,000 tons of green H2 annually.

Beginning in 2026, Air Liquide’s plant located in the Port-Jérôme industrial zone, will produce 28,000 tons of renewable hydrogen per year for industry as well as the mobility sector. To put this into greater perspective, with this amount, a hydrogen-fueled road truck could drive around the world 10,000 times.

The low carbon hydrogen made possible by Siemens Energy’s electrolyzers will contribute to Air Liquide’s decarbonization of the Normandy industrial basin and mobility.

The low carbon hydrogen produced will result in as much as 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions being saved every year. Under other circumstances, it would take as many as 25 million trees to bind this amount of CO2.

The electrolyzers designed to produce renewable hydrogen are based on PEM tech.

According to Siemens Energy, PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolysis is highly compatible to intermittent renewable energy supply. This is due to PEM technology having short ramp-up time and dynamic controllability. As such, the technology is ideally suited for the quick ramp-up of the hydrogen industry because of its high energy density, small materials requirement and minimal carbon footprint.

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Without renewable hydrogen (green hydrogen), the sustainable decarbonization of industry would be unthinkable, says Anne Laure de Chammard, a Siemens Energy Executive Board member, which is why these types of projects are so vital.

“But they can only be a starting point for a sustainable transformation of the industrial landscape,” Laure de Chammard adds. “Other large-scale projects must follow quickly. For the development of a European hydrogen economy to succeed, we need reliable support from policymakers and simplified procedures for funding and approving such projects.”

Supplying hydrogen projects across the globe.

Though the Normand’Hy project will be one of the first to be supplied from Siemens Energy’s new electrolyzer production facility in Berlin, the company intends to scale up its production and supply renewable hydrogen projects around the world.

Industrial series production of its stacks is slated to begin in November and, by 2025, production is expected to ramp up to a minimum of 3 gigawatts (GW) annually.