A German journey into the hydrogen future

Ellinor Ehrn­berg is a hard woman to pin down. As the Pres­id­ent of Smol­tek Hydro­gen, she is con­stantly on the move, shut­tling between work­shops, meet­ings, and lab vis­its. But after sev­er­al attempts, I finally man­aged to sit down with her for an in-depth con­ver­sa­tion about her recent three-day vis­it to Ger­many and what it means for Smoltek’s future.

Exploring the hydrogen heartland

Ehrnberg’s trip, which took place between Novem­ber 11th and 13th, was part of a Scand­inavi­an del­eg­a­tion organ­ized by the Ger­man Cham­bers of Com­merce in Sweden and Den­mark. The pur­pose was to explore busi­ness oppor­tun­it­ies and con­nect with key play­ers in Germany’s rap­idly expand­ing hydro­gen sector.

Over three days, the del­eg­a­tion toured major hydro­gen facil­it­ies in the Cent­ral Ger­man Chem­ic­al Tri­angle, Lusa­tia, and North Rhine-West­phalia. They met with lead­ing experts, sup­pli­ers, and tech­no­logy pro­viders, gain­ing a firsthand look at the ground­break­ing pro­jects underway.

“The scale and speed of what is hap­pen­ing in Ger­many right now is truly remark­able,” Ehrn­berg said with palp­able enthu­si­asm. “There is a clear con­sensus across the coun­try: Ger­many is going all in on hydro­gen, with massive invest­ments to make the vis­ion a reality.”

A nation transformed

Ehrn­berg explained that Germany’s whole­hearted embrace of hydro­gen is the cul­min­a­tion of a series of energy shocks over the past dec­ade. The 2011 Fukushi­ma dis­aster promp­ted the coun­try to begin phas­ing out nuc­le­ar power. More recently, Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine and the sab­ot­age of the Nord Stream pipelines has drastic­ally reduced nat­ur­al gas supplies.

“You can draw a straight line from Fukushi­ma to the war in Ukraine to where Ger­many is today,” she said. “They have sys­tem­at­ic­ally elim­in­ated options that were no longer viable and have res­ol­utely com­mit­ted to hydro­gen as the path forward.”

This trans­form­a­tion was on full dis­play dur­ing Ehrnberg’s vis­it. The del­eg­a­tion toured major hydro­gen facil­it­ies in the Cent­ral Ger­man Chem­ic­al Tri­angle, Lusa­tia, and North Rhine-West­phalia. They met with lead­ing experts, sup­pli­ers, and tech­no­logy providers.

“At every stop, we heard the same refrain,” Ehrn­berg recoun­ted. “Ger­many sees hydro­gen as the key to its energy future. And they are ded­ic­at­ing immense resources to real­ize this poten­tial, not someday, but right now.”

A compelling opportunity

This presents a tre­mend­ous oppor­tun­ity for Smol­tek, which has developed ground­break­ing elec­trode tech­no­logy for PEM-elec­tro­lyz­ers. Ehrnberg’s meet­ings allowed her to show­case Smoltek’s solu­tions to a highly engaged audience.

“With a few excep­tions, the response was over­whelm­ingly pos­it­ive,” she said. “You could see the wheels turn­ing as people grasped the poten­tial of what we’ve created.”

The excep­tions she referred to were some engin­eers dir­ectly involved in elec­tro­lyz­er devel­op­ment, who exhib­ited a bit of “not inven­ted here syn­drome” – a reluct­ance to embrace ideas or tech­no­lo­gies that ori­gin­ate out­side their own organ­iz­a­tion. But among the busi­ness lead­ers, investors, and poli­cy­makers Ehrn­berg met with, the enthu­si­asm was uniform.

“I came back with a stack of busi­ness cards and a very full fol­low-up list,” she said with a smile. “The interest and urgency were obvious.”

The road ahead

For Ehrn­berg, the vis­it was a power­ful val­id­a­tion of Smoltek’s strategy and a clear call to action. To build on the momentum, she is cur­rently explor­ing the pos­sib­il­ity of increas­ing Smol­tek’s pres­ence in Germany.

“We abso­lutely must have boots on the ground, giv­en how fast this mar­ket is mov­ing,” she insisted. “This is an import­ant moment, and we are determ­ined to act quickly to make the most of it.”

As our con­ver­sa­tion wound down, I sensed Ehrnberg’s eager­ness to return to work. The trip had made a deep impres­sion, but it was also clear that it was just the begin­ning for her.

“Ger­many has made its choice. Hydro­gen is the future,” she said as we par­ted. “And Smol­tek is going to be a key part of that future. Just watch.”

Share your thoughts

Curi­ous about the future of hydro­gen in Ger­many and Smoltek’s role in this trans­form­a­tion? Vis­it Smoltek’s IR page on Linked­In and join the dis­cus­sion. In the post link­ing to this art­icle, you can ask Ellinor Ehrn­berg your ques­tions about Germany’s hydro­gen ambi­tions and how Smol­tek plans to contribute.