In spring 2021, a national company-led hydrogen cluster was established in Finland to accelerate hydrogen economy and exports of hydrogen-related solutions. To date, the cluster has attracted almost 50 companies already, including Spinverse, which will provide services for building project consortia, raising funding and coordinating projects. The cluster aims to open up doors to European networks as there are plans to invest tens of billions of euros to hydrogen economy. The cluster has now published its website.
To bring forth system-level changes, companies from different businesses in industries are needed. The cluster now includes a versatile group of companies from energy industry, chemical industry, forest industry and technology industry. There are global companies, SMEs and start-ups. The national hydrogen cluster brings together all the actors and helps in networking in and outside Finland and Europe.
Pekka Koponen, Founder and chairman of Spinverse says: “As a member of the Finnish Hydrogen Cluster, we at Spinverse aim to help our clients in finding funding opportunities from various instruments, and with the kickoff of the EU hydrogen strategy in summer 2020, hydrogen related projects will be receiving billions of euros in funding in the upcoming years throughout Europe.”
For starters, the hydrogen cluster has been identifying planned or recently launched hydrogen projects. The projects are largely related to the different sectors of the value chain such as in the hydrogen production, adding the industrial usage of hydrogen, hydrogen logistics and management processes, applications in maritime shipping and in the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of equipment and technology needed to manage hydrogen.
“The investments are worth about billion euros, with estimated reductions in emissions of 4-6 million carbon dioxide tonnes per year,” Sakari Kallo from SSAB says.
In Europe, there are plans to invest tens of billions of euros in hydrogen economy. The member countries are expected to direct a part of the recovery package of total of 670 B€ as investments in projects accelerating the hydrogen economy and integration of the energy sector.
The hydrogen cluster encourages the participating companies to join European and international projects accelerating the hydrogen economy. There are ongoing discussions for collaboration with similar clusters, for example, in Sweden, the Baltic countries, Poland and Germany.
”As an example, we have just launched project BotH2nia, which has been prepared by the hydrogen clusters in Finland and Sweden,” Matti Malkamäki from Aurelia Turbines says.
The national hydrogen cluster is also working on getting a full picture of the strengths of Finland and companies operating here from the point of view of developing the hydrogen economy.
“We want to identify the differentiating technology know-how and competencies for Finland and encourage collaboration which creates new solutions for exports. This will help us to develop our own offering in the project plans with European partners,” Simo Säynevirta from ABB concludes.
Contact at Spinverse:
Timo Ropponen, 050 588 0440, timo.ropponen@spinverse.com
For more information, contact the Hydrogen Cluster’s steering group:
Sakari Kallo, SSAB, 040 530 1862, sakari.kallo@ssab.com
Matti Malkamäki, Aurelia Turbines, 050 543 5260, matti.malkamaki@aureliaturbines.com
Simo Säynevirta, ABB, 050 332 4475, simo.saynevirta@fi.abb.com
Outi Ervasti, Chair, Neste, 050 458 9741, outi.ervasti@neste.com
Technology industries of Finland:
Mervi Karikorpi, 040 7419801, mervi.karikorpi@teknologiateollisuus.fi
This text is loosely based on the original text in Finnish on Technology Industries of Finland website: Kansallinen vetyklusteri avaa ovia euroopalaisiin verkostoihin (24.4.2021)