Concrete plans and collaboration – takeaways from EU Industry Days 2023
BalticSeaH2, Estonian Hydrogen Cluster, H2 Cluster Finland and Spanish Hydrogen Association hosted a joint session called “Hydrogen economy as a driver for industrial excellence and decarbonisation in the Baltic Sea Region and the Iberian Peninsula” at EU Industry Days in Málaga.
Overall, building hydrogen valleys has been recognised as a good, concrete way to demonstrate and advance hydrogen economy in Europe. Hydrogen valleys are regions with several hydrogen applications to create a local ecosystem for hydrogen and demonstrate hydrogen economy.
BalticSeaH2 main valley is between Finland and Estonia, and the project includes and includes seven connected valleys across Baltic Sea region. This type of collaboration between both organisations and countries is significant and important – many participants at EU Industry Days raised competition instead of collaboration as a significant issue that can hinder building a hydrogen economy. BalticSeaH2 is unique as it builds such a large-scale valley, with the main valley between two countries, and spanning across the Baltic Sea.
Spain also has several EU-funded hydrogen valleys, as introduced by Spanish Hydrogen Association during the Industry Days session. Spanish hydrogen valleys cover the whole hydrogen value chain relatively well, but the session also recognised that regarding technologies, it would make sense to collaborate between Spain, Finland and Estonia.