The Danish Strategy Week, including a Vision Workshop and industry visits, took place in Copenhagen and Western Denmark on October 6–10, 2025, in connection with World Hydrogen Week. The events were organized in collaboration with Danish hydrogen stakeholders and aimed to explore Denmark’s role in building a sustainable and resilient hydrogen economy for the Nordic region and Europe.
October 6: Danish Vision Workshop – Hosted in Copenhagen
The Vision Workshop gathered around 20 representatives from Danish industry, academia, and public authorities to co-create a long-term ideal vision for Denmark’s hydrogen future. The session was facilitated using the LEGO® Serious Play® method, encouraging participants to construct and visualize Denmark’s strategic opportunities in hydrogen.
The Danish vision workshop concluded six key messages:
- Hydrogen as a means to an end: Hydrogen should be deployed where it delivers real impact serving as a tool for decarbonization and strengthening Europe’s energy security, not an end goal in itself.
- Fostering Danish knowledge for the good of all: Just as Denmark has enabled global decarbonization through wind energy, it can now export hydrogen expertise, technologies, and R&D to benefit other countries.
- Public support drives success: Lasting progress requires broad societal backing, as Denmark has learned from its wind power deployment. Citizens, policymakers, and businesses must share both the vision and the value created by the hydrogen transition.
- Allocating finite resources for maximum impact: Financial resources are limited; public money must be used where it delivers the greatest welfare and environmental return to maintain trust and legitimacy.
- Without nature there is no economy: Protecting biodiversity and ecosystems remains the goal—hydrogen is a means to safeguard the natural environment that sustains economic and social well-being.
October 7–10: Industry Field Visits during World Hydrogen Week
As part of World Hydrogen Week, the Danish program continued with industry visits to leading hydrogen and e-fuels facilities across western Denmark. The delegation visited three key sites: Port of Esbjerg Hydrogen & E-Fuels Hub, Kasso E-Methanol Production Facilities and Solar Farm and HySynergy Green Hydrogen Plant. Of the three sites, two were already producing hydrogen (and methanol) and delivered their products to various offtakers. The production sites were also an excellent showcase for hydrogen’s potential for sector integration, as the excess heat generated during the processes were utilized for district heating, and the methanol plant also provided grid balancing services.
Discussions during the field trips and World Hydrogen Week sessions reinforced several recurring themes:
- Infrastructure readiness and strong demand are the key enablers for opening and scaling hydrogen markets.
- EU and German policy directions continue to shape market dynamics and funding priorities. Clear incentives—both carrots and sticks—are now needed to accelerate demand. Supporting offtake and market creation is just as critical as investing in production capacity.
- China has taken the global lead in hydrogen manufacturing, while the EU has lost some of its early momentum due to delays in infrastructure development and demand stimulation.
- Successful Danish projects have built integrated domestic value chains, with production and offtake secured within the same sites—ensuring stability and market confidence.
- Balancing rapid emission reductions with industrial competitiveness remains a central challenge in Europe’s hydrogen transition.
The vision workshop and field visits offered an eye-opening look at Denmark’s trailblazer role in Europe’s hydrogen landscape. While the European hydrogen sector has come down from the hype of recent years, and the mood has occasionally turned cautious due to project cancellations and delayed final investment decisions, Denmark’s concrete production and planned expansions by the up-and-running hydrogen plants show that clean hydrogen is becoming a reality. The approach may now be more pragmatic, but the progress is real.
