Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer IWES Showcase the Power of Collaboration for a Carbon-Free Future

A major renewable energy triumph occurred recently when a German-affiliated research project successfully linked a wind turbine to two electrolysers, making it possible to produce green hydrogen directly from offshore facilities. This ground-breaking development, which is part of the H2Mare initiative, saw a partnership between Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer IWES, and it presents endless possibilities for decarbonizing the world at an accelerated pace. With all the benefits that the world will reap from this project, especially in fighting the climate change crisis, one thing is clear – the role of collaboration in heralding green energy solutions, and we are all up for it. Here, we will decode the role of collaboration in extinguishing sustainability barriers by accelerating innovation, spreading the cost of innovation, and advancing progress in dire times like this.

The Place of Collaboration in Clean Energy Innovation

As the world grapples with the wrath of climate change, nations, researchers, academia, and industry leaders are working around the clock to find ways to mitigate global warming. As such, global renewable energy pursuits have been at an all-time high, with many striving to find the most efficient ways to reverse climate change. In this dynamic landscape, challenges exist, many of which lie in the confines of limitations in novel paradigms as far as technological development is concerned and inadequacies in research and development (R&D) funding. Yet, in all this, collaboration has emerged as a powerful tool to dismantle sustainability barriers.

Studies have shown that international cooperation is essential in pooling the already limited financial resources, further cutting the individual burdens of substantial upfront costs, especially in project research and development phases.

At the same time, cooperation, in this sense, is imperative for knowledge sharing and exchanges of experiences and ideas that underlie novel technological paradigms. This collaboration is crucial for generating new frontiers in engineering knowledge, which, in turn, are transformed into novel technologies.

Collaborations are also imperative when opening new markets, in this case, for renewable energy products and achieving commercialization timelines. Securing adequate funding is an essential factor in the green energy revolution, and it is here where collaboration with investors comes in handy. Collaborations with investment organizations or individual investors ensure that funding is available to develop and roll out new renewable energy technologies while, at the same time, supporting exchanges on business strategy and industry connections that support commercialization.

Considering all these, it is clear that the road to net zero demands a shift in mindsets—away from siloed thinking to a mindset that supports the meshing of expertise across disciplines—from academia to industry and vice versa.

The Collaboration between Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer IWES

The partnership between Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer to link wind turbines with electrolyzers to produce offshore green hydrogen, each organization leveraging its strengths, is a true testament to the power of meshing of expertise in the clean energy revolution.

Siemens Gamesa is a global giant in the wind energy space and has, for over four decades, been pioneering the manufacture of sophisticated wind turbines for harnessing wind power. On the other hand, Fraunhofer IWES is a renowned research institution offering research services geared towards a sustainable future. The institution’s research inclinations are in hydrogen and wind technologies, which have had a massive impact on not only promoting the green energy transition but also significantly reducing the costs involved.

In this partnership, Siemens Gamesa lent its advanced wind turbine technology expertise to produce the renewable electricity needed for green hydrogen production. At the same time, Fraunhofer IWES contributed its robust research infrastructure and innovation strengths in the wind energy and electrolysis ecosystem. Together, a powerful force was created, which resulted in the development of an integrated system where two electrolyzers were linked directly into a wind turbine, allowing for the direct production of green hydrogen. The electrolyzers would use the electric current from wind energy to break down water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, which is referred to as electrolysis.

As seen above, this collaboration thrived on the expertise in technological innovation, resulting in an outcome that makes hydrogen production efficient and reliable. With more innovations in the pipeline from this collaboration, including those that entail the production of P-to-X products, which can be compressed and stored, it is pretty evident that joint efforts play a significant role in the world as we race to achieve a clean energy era.

Conclusion

Looking ahead, it should be noted that climate change action is not a siloed operation. In fact, given the urgency to achieve the national and global goals to avert global warming, collaborations are crucial – whether through sharing experience, knowledge, or pooling resources, human capacity, and strategies. Examples of partnerships across industries, like in the case of Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer IWES and Spain and China’s Envision (depicted in our previous article), show the immense promise that lies in partnerships in advancing the clean energy revolution. By fostering partnerships like this between Siemens Gamesa and Fraunhofer, we push the frontiers of technological paradigms that will play a crucial role in accelerating the development and rolling out of clean energy solutions, thus ensuring a thriving earth for the present and future generations.