Large-scale hydrogen valley project between Finland and Estonia set to kick off

BalticSeaH2 project – a large-scale cross-border hydrogen valley gathering 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea region countries – with production potential for hydrogen to reach 100,000 tonnes annually, is ready to kick off.

BalticSeaH2, prepared by Finnish CLIC Innovation as the project coordinator and Gasgrid Finland as a co-coordinator for the collaboration in the project, is set to start at the beginning of June and will last for five years.

The consortium includes 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea region countries: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

It aims to build the first significant, cross-border hydrogen valley in Europe where the main valley is between southern Finland and Estonia.

The goal is to create an integrated hydrogen economy around the Baltic Sea to enable self-sufficiency of energy and minimise carbon emissions from different industries. This is to be achieved by combining local areas into a broader valley supports creating a genuinely integrated, interregional hydrogen economy, which has not been done previously on this scale in Europe, Gasgrid Finland said.

As explained, the area between Finland and Estonia is an optimal location for a cross-border hydrogen market with the necessary infrastructure – natural gas pipelines, electricity grids, and active marine traffic – already existing in the Gulf of Finland.

The project will also support the reduction of carbon emissions from existing marine traffic. In addition, Gasgrid Finland said it is already preparing hydrogen infrastructure: Nordic-Baltic Hydrogen Corridor, Baltic Sea Hydrogen Collector and Nordic Hydrogen Route to enable strong growth for the hydrogen economy and hydrogen markets in the Baltic Sea region.

BalticSeaH2 project enables 25 demonstration and investment cases to showcase the different sectors of the hydrogen economy, adding up to over €4 billion in total investments. The production potential for hydrogen will reach 100,000 tonnes of hydrogen annually by the end of the project. The hydrogen and its derivatives can be utilised or sold by different industries brought together by the project.

The total volume of the project is €33 million euro, with a €25 million funding from the EU.