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16 September 2022 | News

The transition to a hydrogen economy is being studied in the Raahe region and North Ostrobothnia

In September 2022, VTT will start a preliminary study on the transition to a hydrogen economy in North Ostrobothnia and ask companies in the Raahe region about their interest in the hydrogen business.

The transition to a hydrogen economy is being studied in the Raahe region and North Ostrobothnia

The pre-study will start by mapping up-to-date information on hydrogen-related actors, activities, users, volumes and infrastructure in Finland. In addition, it will identify the policy and regulatory issues related to hydrogen use and conduct preliminary techno-economic analysis. The studies and research to be carried out will be linked to a similar exercise in Sweden.

For North Ostrobothnia, the essential part of the preliminary study is the possible future development of the hydrogen economy. The study considers two main scenarios; a centralised and a decentralised system. The time frame for the scenario work is the near future and the year 2035 and beyond.

In the centralised scenario, hydrogen is produced near the user or transmission pipelines.

In the decentralised scenario, hydrogen is produced close to the renewable electricity generation and transported to the hydrogen recovery site by a suitable option.

The scenario work will support local and regional actors to anticipate future hydrogen business opportunities over the next fifteen years. It will also identify the capabilities and development needs of local businesses.

The study will run from September 2022 to January 2023 and include workshops and stakeholder meetings, which will be announced later. The results of the work will be available for review in February-March 2023. They will be used locally, nationally, and in cooperation networks on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia, where BotH2nia aims to create the world's first hydrogen bay.

The preliminary study is being carried out by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and commissioned by the National Hydrogen Network and R4H2 - REACTions for Hydrogen projects managed by Raahe Region Development.

More hydrogen expertise for the Raahe region

A separate study will be carried out in the Raahe sub-regional area to determine the interest of companies in the hydrogen business and possible related skills needs during autumn 2022 in cooperation with the Brahe Training Centre. The preliminary view is that companies in the region are in an excellent position to participate in the globally growing hydrogen business. In addition to the companies' objectives, the aim is to know their hydrogen-related training needs so that information sessions and training courses can be designed to serve them best. These needs may relate to safety issues, legislation or financing, but also basic knowledge of hydrogen applications.

The questionnaire is addressed to all companies in the Raahe region interested in the hydrogen business or wanting to know more about it. The survey will be carried out as an online questionnaire and partly by telephone in the context of the annual business barometer on the development of the Raahe region. A link to the survey can be found on the Raahe Region Development website.