How hydrogen took a trainee to the future of energy – Power Engineering International

Tobias Greitemeier stands in the bright, modern production hall at Siemens Energy’s factory in Berlin. Beside him towers a two-metre-high electrolyser stack.
For Tobias, this is the ‘office’: working at the cutting edge of hydrogen production in a facility that integrates robotics and digitalisation.
“Many processes are managed by machines, yet we also engage in substantial manual lab work, researching, refining and testing new ideas,” he says. “In a sense, modern robotics converge with a start-up spirit here.”
Tobias grew up in Wittstock-Dosse, a small town in Brandenburg, Germany, where the adventure-loving young man enjoyed tinkering with motorcycles or cutting wood in the forest.
This article is part of the Energy Workforce in Transition series, brought to you by Siemens Energy and Power Engineering International.

Follow this series to meet the Future Energy Shapers of the energy transition.
He enrolled in an ‘Ausbildung’ – the German traineeship system combining classroom instruction with practical, on-the-job training to prepare individuals for specific professions – as an ‘industriemechaniker’ and envisioned a career as an industrial mechanic.
“My journey began with large gas turbines at Siemens Energy, whose sheer size was incredibly impressive.”
He joined Siemens Energy in 2022 when the company needed a newly-trained industrial mechanic in its recent electrolyser factory.
Hydrogen enables the storage of green energy in molecular form, which can help decarbonise hard-to-abate industrial sectors, reducing CO2 emissions and promoting sustainable production.
It can also be utilised in gas turbines, providing a climate-neutral complement to renewables in the energy mix.
Currently, there is no specific public training programme for hydrogen production in Europe. Personnel typically transition from other fields and receive on-the-job training.
So to gain the necessary expertise, Tobias spent an additional year training with seasoned hydrogen experts in R&D at the company’s facility in Erlangen, which has been developing electrolysers for over a decade.
Step by step, he learned how to precisely weigh valuable raw materials like platinum and iridium to the milligram and mix and roll them into a paste.
This careful manual work is followed by highly automated processes. The result is proton exchange membranes (PEMs), which Tobias affectionately calls “sandwiches”.
Briefly explained: an electrolyser operates like a reversed fuel cell, consisting of two electrodes, an anode and a cathode, and a separator: the PEM. This membrane is thinly coated on both sides with precious metals (like a sandwich).
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Cynthia Wirth: Meet the woman who sees the energy transition in 3D
PEM electrolysis itself is simple and well-known: water flows through the membrane and is split into hydrogen and oxygen using electric current. The challenge lies in scaling production to industrial quantities.
To increase efficiency, robots take over after the manual work. High-tech machines coat one side of the membrane with platinum and the other with iridium.
Today, 23-year-old Tobias controls and monitors this process. “The layers must be very thin, because the raw material is expensive, but thick enough for the membrane to work reliably.”
Many such electrolyser cells are stacked together to boost capacity. The electrolysis capacity of the stacks produced in the Berlin factory could reach over 3GW by 2025 if demand warrants.
Siemens Energy has partnered with industrial gas expert Air Liquide in a joint venture to achieve further scaling effects and strengthen this future technology.
Reflecting on his career to date, Tobias says that initially the switch from turbines to hydrogen “felt like to jump in at the deep end”. However, he adds: “The leap was refreshing, the support was immense, and the new role extremely fascinating. I would make the same choice again without hesitation.”
Tobias is driven by an overarching goal: “Our facilities underpin the success of the energy transition. With so much still evolving, even young professionals like us play a crucial role in shaping its future. That deeply motivates me.”
And so far he is delighted with his energy transformation: “No work day is like the other. I learn something new every day and get to work on an important topic with great people.
“We all have the opportunity to contribute to decarbonisation – I’m grateful I seized mine.”
If you want to become part of Siemens Energy’s workforce in transition, take a look at the vacancies.
How, why and what: the Berlin electrolyser factory

The annual production capacity of the electrolyser factory could increase to at least three gigawatts by 2025, depending on market demand.

With an electrolysis capacity of 3GW, an average of 300,000 tonnes of hydrogen can be produced annually. In Berlin, 2,000 square metres of new highly automated production lines have been set up to manufacture stacks.

The basic module from Siemens Energy is the Elyzer P-300. With a power consumption of 17.5 MW and an efficiency of around 75.5%, it can produce 335 kilograms of hydrogen per hour.
H₂ Academy

The German Association for Gas and Water (Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches e.V., DVGW) and Siemens Energy formalized a collaborative agreement in Berlin in June 2024 to market the jointly developed “H₂ Academy” into the market.

This integrated training curriculum already consists of several training modules that were introduced to Siemens Energy employees in the last two years. It will now be made available to interested parties in the market and includes both web-based training and in-person synchronous courses tailored for individuals seeking introductory knowledge as well as specialized functional training for experienced engineers.

Power Engineering International examines the drivers that are changing the global power generation sector. It delivers up-to-date news and in-depth articles on industry trends, new technologies and cutting-edge projects impacting the global energy transition. It is a hub for thought leadership from industry experts who are shaping the 4th Industrial Revolution.

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