As governments around the world transition toward low- and zero-carbon energy, there will be a pressing need to authenticate the “green” credentials of the fuels used to generate electricity. For manufactured fuels like hydrogen (H2) and its derivates, validating “green” production will be essential for global trade and consumption.
How can you know if the Green Hydrogen you’re buying is really “green”?
Recognizing this need, Siemens Energy offers the CertaLink Energy Certification Manager to manage Green Energy Declarations and ensure compliance with production requirements for green electricity, green hydrogen, and its derivatives. All essential data from the energy generation and downstream production stages are recorded to monitor and ensure compliance with specific threshold values of dedicated certification schemes.
Benefits of certification
Green Energy Declarations serve as proof of origin of energy and meet the market requirements of all Power-to-X customers. By leveraging highly tamper-evident distributed ledger technology – such as an immutable database or blockchain – these declarations track the climate-neutral origins of energy production, imports, and consumption provide verifiable records of where and how the energy was produced, imported, and consumed in a climate-neutral manner. This creates transparency across industry sectors and borders and helps prevent “greenwashing” of energy use.
These declarations enable the following:
- Near real-time tracking of energy production data
- Verification of compliance with regulatory threshold values
- Tamper-proof data flow across all production stages to ensure reliable certification audits leveraging the CertaLink ecosystem developed with TÜV SÜD and German Energy Agency (dena)
- Verified Green Product Declarations per batch, personalized for each offtaker.
Implementing this system supports broader goals, including:
- Securing customs and tax reductions
- Achieving higher market prices for products produced by green energy
- Ensuring compliance with governmental requirements such as the EU RED II/III directives
- Unlocking energy trading opportunities for green energy in stock exchanges and other marketplaces.
How CertaLink Energy Certification Manager works
The CertaLink Energy Certification Manager connects physical facilities to a secure digital ledger, enabling transparent and traceable certification of hydrogen and related products. The system tracks hydrogen production by generating digital tokens that capture key data such as the energy source, timestamp, and operational details. These tokens are validated against compliance rules, and if all criteria are met, they are converted into declaration tokens that serve as the foundation for issuing certified product declarations.
To certify hydrogen as green, declaration tokens representing renewable electricity are required – either generated within the CertaLink system or imported from external providers. Once a product declaration is issued and hydrogen is consumed, the corresponding tokens are devalued to prevent reuse.
Throughout the process, tokens are continuously updated with new facility data, creating a complete record of production steps. The latest version of CertaLink also supports importing tokens from upstream processes outside its ecosystem, enabling flexibility and interoperability across complex supply chains.
Case Studies
The CertaLink Energy Certification Manager system has successfully demonstrated its functionality by generating Green Energy Declarations at two pilot plants.
At the Haru Oni plant in Patagonia, Chile, synthetic fuel is produced using water, wind energy, and CO₂ captured from the air. The project, supported by a consortium including Siemens Energy, Enel, Enap, Empresas Gas, ExxonMobil, HIF, and Porsche Motorsports, showcases a wide range of innovative, climate-relevant technologies at a single location. This liquid energy carrier emits around 90% less CO₂ than fossil fuels and is fully compatible with the existing liquid fuel infrastructure.
At the NOBIAN plant in Bitterfeld/Wolfen, Germany, hydrogen is produced via Chlor-Alkali Electrolysis powered by green energy and downstream processing within the chemical plant. The pilot implementation of the CertaLink Energy Certification Manager ensured transparent production and enabled production batches to be labeled with the Green Energy Declaration energy label, meeting the requirements of TÜV SÜD and German Energy Agency (dena).
Collaboration with certification bodies
Siemens Energy not only provides the technical infrastructure to connect assets along the supply chain but has also established a strong partner ecosystem. They’ve joined forces with TÜV SÜD, an internationally accredited certification body, to apply globally recognized certification standards. Additionally, the German Energy Agency (dena) provides consultancy services and regulatory expertise.
The CertaLink Energy Certification Manager supports various accreditation schemes, including green electricity, green hydrogen, e-fuels, and other green energy carriers or energy-intensive green goods. It provides all the necessary information to verify the sustainable origin and carbon footprint of the fuels produced.
By offering innovative tools like the CertaLink Energy Certification Manager, Siemens Energy is driving transparency and sustainability in energy production. As global demand for green fuels grows, systems like CertaLink will play a vital role in ensuring compliance, reducing carbon footprints, and accelerating the transition to a cleaner energy future.
