The project proposal is now entering Grant Agreement Preparation process with Clean Hydrogen Partnership, with a goal to get the 5-year project started in the summer of 2023. The project consortium consists of 44 partners from nine countries around the Baltic Sea area: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. CLIC Innovation Oy and Gasgrid Finland Oy are co-coordinating the project. The total volume of the proposal is 33 million euro, and estimated EU grant amount 25 million . Clean Hydrogen Partnership allocates European Commission funding for hydrogen valleys under REPowerEU.
BalticSeaH2 intends to establish the first, large scale interregional hydrogen valley in Europe. The objective is to create an integrated hydrogen economy in the region to enable decarbonization of different industry sectors and provide energy security in the entire region and further for central Europe. The region between Finland and Estonia is an ideal location for developing the first cross-border hydrogen market because of the already existing infrastructure that is shared between the two countries: natural gas pipelines, electricity grid connections and maritime connections for transportation. The project also aims to decarbonize the Baltic Sea region marine transportation.
The region has potential and plans to produce more renewable energy than it will consume. Developing an interregional hydrogen valley with full value chains will boost hydrogen market and system development across country borders and pave the way for developing a system efficient, Baltic Sea wide hydrogen economy. The output of the project would see the first cross-border hydrogen valley with interconnected markets. In addition, the project aims to demonstrate a cross border hydrogen economy, considering financing mechanisms to mobilize future investments.
