During the sell-out Summit of the 2022 Hydrogen Americas Summit, we spoke to global and regional #hydrogen and #energy leaders about the future outlook for the hydrogen industry, including an interview with Richard Voorberg, President North America at Siemens Energy.
What message did you share with the audience?
So, the message I really want to bring to the summit is about hydrogen is one of the answers. So, when you look at power generation, when you look at decarbonization, it’s an all the above answer. So, it’s everything from nuclear to natural gas as a transition fuel, but then hydrogen is definitely a player as well as renewables, whether it be wind or solar. All those need to work together if we really want to decarbonize fairly quickly in our business.
How does it feel to be working towards a green hydrogen future?
Well, working on this new challenge is exciting, if I look at my whole career I spent a lot of it in just strictly power generation, whether it be coal, plants, burning coal to create steam for steam turbines, gas turbines burning natural gas, and now we’ve got a difference, and it really makes a difference to get out of bed to know I’m trying to create a greener world for my kids to grow up in, and my grandkids to grow up in. And I see hydrogen as being a big player in that.
What does the next 5 years look like for the hydrogen industry?
Oh boy, I wish I knew what would happen in the next 5 years, but, we’ll definitely see a transition. What I really want to advocate is, we’ve got to be, it’s got to be a smart transition, it can’t be an over the night flick of the switch, where we move to a hydrogen economy or we move to a total decarb. Because there’s a lot of things, especially when you’re looking at the power generation market, it’s got to be clean, which we all agree on, but it’s got to be reliable and it’s got to be inexpensive. If one of those 3 things fall down, we failed. And if we don’t make it reliable, if we don’t make it cheap, it’s not going to be economically viable, and then it will fall down as well.
Why is this summit important?
I’m at the summit because, as Siemens Energy, we want to drive the decarbonization story and move it together. And we can’t do it alone, that’s one of our uncomfortable truths we say is, we can’t do it alone. And what I’m looking to do is build up partners, meet people, encourage other people, because when we really start working together, then we’re going to make some changes in this world.
#H2Americas2023
Join them at global and regional #hydrogen and #energy leaders at #H2Americas2023 Summit & Exhibition taking place 2-3 October 2023 in Washington D.C. Produced by the Sustainable Energy Council and Co-Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the event welcomes 3000 industry professionals, 170+ Speakers, 60 Exhibitors and 35+ sponsors to share the latest news, establish key connections and sign business deals to accelerate the deployment of the hydrogen economy. Visit our website for more information & to register your place among hydrogen pioneers: https://www.hydrogen-americas-summit.com/
