Expertise
Hydrogen
Hydrogen does not have a technology problem. It has an offtake problem.
Most hydrogen projects fail commercially long before they fail technically. The equipment works. What is missing is a customer who will sign, a price that survives the business case, and a permitting and grid path that arrives on time.
The industry challenge
- Projects are engineered before anyone has confirmed who buys the molecule and at what price.
- Subsidy timelines and investment decisions run on different clocks.
- Industrial buyers are asked to switch fuels without a credible supply guarantee.
- Ecosystems are announced faster than they are organised.
My perspective
I look at a hydrogen project the way a buyer does: delivered cost, reliability, contract length, and what happens if the plant is late.
The serious conversations are with procurement and plant management, not with innovation departments. Innovation budgets do not carry a twenty-year supply contract.
Regulation and public funding are commercial instruments, not decoration. Whoever understands the mechanics earlier gets the better project.
One credible anchor customer changes a project more than another round of feasibility studies.
What companies frequently underestimate
- How long industrial procurement cycles actually take.
- That grid connection, not the electrolyser, is usually the critical path.
- How much of the work is stakeholder management: municipalities, permitting authorities, grid operators, neighbours.
- That the first contract defines the reference price for everything that follows.
Track record evidence
- Founded and built the Hydrogen Energy Cluster Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, grown to 50+ international members including Airbus, Siemens and Air Liquide, connecting 120+ stakeholders across industry, research and government.
- Head of Sales & Marketing and Managing Partner at H2APEX, positioning the business in the emerging hydrogen market and contributing to a successful IPO at approximately €100 million market capitalisation.
- Chief Sales Officer at Infener AG, building a commercial pipeline of 40+ sites representing approximately €50 million across hydrogen, BESS and digital infrastructure.
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