The digital advantage for Siemens Energy – Building a sustainable future
As one of the world’s leading energy technology companies, Siemens Energy specializes in power generation, industrial applications, and the transmission of energy, with their flagship products including gas turbines, power plant solutions, and innovative clean energy technologies. As a pioneering force in sustainable power generation, the company is revolutionizing the energy sector through its innovative combination of green hydrogen technology and advanced manufacturing solutions.
Siemens Energy faces a clear challenge in the power generation sector: reducing CO2 emissions while maintaining reliable energy production. Traditional gas turbines running on natural gas release significant CO2 emissions during operation. The company needed to develop new solutions that could use green hydrogen instead of natural gas – a switch that would eliminate CO2 emissions but required significant technical innovations. The main technical hurdle was adapting gas turbines to handle hydrogen’s higher flame temperatures and different combustion properties. This required both new engineering approaches and advanced manufacturing methods to create practical, reliable solutions
Watch the full interview to see how Siemens Energy transformed power generation: from concept to end product, resulting in the world’s first 100% hydrogen gas turbine system — powered by Siemens Xcelerator and additive manufacturing.
Siemens Xcelerator digital tool thread and additive manufacturing
Here’s how Siemens Xcelerator integrated digital tool thread and AM solution helped Siemens Energy transform power generation:
- Digital Twin Implementation: By creating virtual models of both products and manufacturing processes, engineers could visualize, simulate, and optimize designs before physical production, significantly reducing development time and costs
- Global Collaboration : The product lifecycle management (PLM) system enabled seamless cooperation across disciplines and sites worldwide, ensuring all team members work with the latest models and maintaining version control throughout the development process
- Integrated Software Tool Thread: Using NX for complex geometry modeling, Teamcenter for collaboration, and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ for simulation, the team achieved 26 design iterations within the project timeline – four times more than possible with traditional methods
- Additive Manufacturing: With a network of over 50 metal printers and 15 years of AM expertise, Siemens Energy creates complex components that would be impossible to manufacture through traditional methods
The focus is on how we control the production value chain from design through to delivery. And here our collaboration with Siemens software is critical to really make sure that we control parts to the right cost, to the right quality and on time.
Sebastian Piegert, Head of Technology for AM, Siemens Energy
A clear path to energy sustainability
The success of Siemens Energy’s digital transformation demonstrates the power of integrated technology in revolutionizing power generation. By leveraging NX, Teamcenter, and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software solutions, along with advanced additive manufacturing, the company has achieved remarkable results in sustainable energy innovation. From reducing development cycles and enabling complex hydrogen-capable designs to facilitating global collaboration, Siemens Energy isn’t just improving how they create power generation solutions today – they’re shaping the future of sustainable energy.
“It’s about helping to create a sustainable future that we all want to be a part of and contribute towards in a meaningful way,” says Quan Lac, vice president of additive manufacturing business at Siemens Energy.
