The article, titled A process model for reconciling purpose and profit in the development of multistakeholder partnerships: case BalticSeaH2, a regional hydrogen valley, studies how actors with different goals, business realities and timelines can work together in a hydrogen valley initiative. The article was written by Sajjad Salehi, Mikko Heiskala and Kimmo Karhu from Aalto University and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences.
The article looks beyond technologies and individual investments. It analyses how collaboration develops when actors need to balance shared societal goals, such as decarbonisation and energy security, with commercial viability and organisation-specific strategies.
A key finding is that hydrogen valley development does not rely on complete consensus from the start. Instead, alignment is built step by step. The authors describe three phases in the development of BalticSeaH2: forming a shared vision, developing a regional blueprint, and establishing the valley as an organisation. In each phase, shared purpose and firm-level strategic interests create tensions, but also lead to practical adjustments that allow collaboration to move forward.
The article introduces the idea of partial reconciliation: a situation where actors do not fully resolve all tensions, but reach enough alignment to continue working together. This is especially relevant for hydrogen valleys, where market conditions, regulation, infrastructure development and investment decisions evolve at different speeds.
For BalticSeaH2, the article highlights the importance of flexible governance, open collaboration structures and distributed experimentation. It also shows how progress can happen through small wins and multi-speed development, where different subprojects and actors move forward at different paces while still contributing to the broader valley development.
The article also notes that the findings are based on the early stages of the hydrogen valley’s development. Later system-scale deployment is not yet covered, and the Nordic institutional context, including high levels of trust and strong public-sector involvement, may influence how the results apply in other regions.
Overall, the study provides a research-based view of BalticSeaH2 as an evolving collaboration model for the hydrogen economy. It shows that building a hydrogen valley requires technology deployment, coordination, governance and the ability to keep collaboration moving under uncertainty.