“Hydrogen will become as normal as driving electric”
“Look at the energy system as a whole.” Those were the parting words Randolf Weterings’ professor gave him after he completed his Master’s in Management of Technology in Delft in 2010. He took them to heart.
“It pushed me to think bigger, and that’s how I ended up being pulled into the world of hydrogen,” he says. “I’m convinced hydrogen is part of the solution. The energy system is enormous, and electricity is only one piece of it. If we want to decarbonize the entire system, it won’t be enough to simply scale up electricity and batteries. That’s where hydrogen comes in.”
Weterings is now Senior Program Manager for Hydrogen at the Port of Rotterdam. Earlier in his career, he helped develop the very first charging station for electric vehicles and even launched his own electrolyzer company. “Back then, the timing just wasn’t right for electrolyzers,” he recalls. “Now it is and the Port of Rotterdam is the right place to do it. I’m doing at scale what I tried to do on a smaller scale with my company: helping build a new energy system.”
“The PowerPoint phase is behind us,” he says. “I’m proud that we’re actually implementing plans now.” It has taken patience: you don’t transform an energy system overnight, and this is a major shift. “Nothing simply ‘fits’ right away technology, legislation, infrastructure, everything has to evolve. That takes time, and it takes the right people and partners.”
That support is there, he says. Within the Port of Rotterdam, there’s a broad mix of expertise “there’s always someone who understands the piece you’re working on.” And the port works with partners who are equally committed. “We’re a coalition of the willing.”
Progress, however, isn’t linear. “It’s two steps forward and sometimes three steps back. That’s okay if it were simple, it wouldn’t be interesting. You also know from the start that not everything will succeed, so you factor that in.” Working on both small and large projects helps him stay motivated: the smaller ones deliver quicker wins, while big projects bring major milestones worth celebrating along the way.
He sees hydrogen playing its biggest role in heavy industry, power generation, and heavy transport. The challenge is speed: can those sectors adapt quickly enough? Policy is another constraint. “To invest, companies need clear, reliable policy but change is happening so fast that policymakers struggle to keep up. And because the transition touches so many sectors, policymakers have to think carefully about unintended consequences.”
Still, he argues, the transition is moving remarkably fast when you zoom out and compare it to other major shifts. He points to electric driving. “When we installed the first charging station around 2009, people thought an electric car was basically a remote-controlled toy. And look where we are today.”
Hydrogen isn’t there yet, he says, but he remains optimistic especially in Rotterdam. “Electric driving and wind energy have become normal. I’m convinced that in ten or twenty years, hydrogen will be too.”
