Project name

BalticSeaH2 – creation of large-scale, cross-border hydrogen valley around the Baltic Sea.

Project aim and description

BalticSeaH2 project is aimed to create a large-scale, cross-border valley around the Baltic Sea. The main (flagship) valley is between southern Finland and Estonia. The area between Finland and Estonia is an optimal location for a cross-border hydrogen market. The necessary infrastructure – natural gas pipelines, electricity grids, and active marine traffic – already exist in the Gulf of Finland. The project will also support the reduction of the carbon emissions from existing marine traffic.

Project builds the first significant, cross-border hydrogen valley in Europe. The goal is to create an integrated hydrogen economy around the Baltic Sea to enable self-sufficiency of energy and minimise carbon emissions from different industries. The project includes 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea area countries. Combining local areas into a broader valley supports creating a genuinely integrated, interregional hydrogen economy, which has not been done previously on this scale in Europe.

BalticSeaH2 projects enables 25 demonstration and investment cases to showcase the different sectors of hydrogen economy, adding up to over 4000 million euros in total investments.

The hydrogen and its derivatives can be utilised or sold by different industries brought together by the project.

Green Tech Cluster in this project will focus on the studies for the use cases of Green Ammonia and will contribute to other Work Packages aimed to facilitate and support the hydrogen valleys in Latvia.

Project activities

Under BalticSeaH2 project, there are 25 concrete demonstration cases under preparation. These demo cases aim to pilot the joint operation and seamless integration of different parts of hydrogen value chain in transnational operating environment. The value chain of hydrogen is well presented – there are demo cases which will produce large quantities of hydrogen, others that store and distribute the gas, cases which use the hydrogen in production of derivatives, and ones that will be the end-user for hydrogen or products derived.

In numbers, BalticSeaH2 demo cases have a potential to produce more than 130 000 tons of hydrogen annually. The consumption will be even more, over 200 000 tons per year, which encourages to increase the production and attracts other producers to join the valley. The annual production of derivatives will exceed 600 000 tons, which concretises the significant impact achieved with the demonstration cases only. The derivatives will be used for example as marine bunker to provide carbon neutral maritime transport, as a fertilizer to reduce the dependency on fossil feedstock, or as olefins to provide a sustainable and carbon neutral way to produce plastics and other long lifetime products. As the hydrogen molecule is versatile and acts as a basic building block for countless chemical compounds, the possibilities in utilising the molecule and its derivatives are limitless.

The demo cases in BalticSeaH2 can easily cross the limit of industrial scale. The potential investment capital for the projects performed inside this hydrogen valley can exceed 4 billion Euros and can create thousands of new jobs across the value chain of hydrogen. And when the pilot plants are scaled up and new stakeholders join the valley, BalticSeaH2 can advance transnational industrial revolution of hydrogen economy in the Baltic Sea region. The demo cases will pilot new technologies and study the integration of interfaces in the environment of an already functional economy.

With the experiences gained during the piloting phases, the ramp-up of larger scale projects and solutions will be easier and more efficient. This enables quick transition to fully functional cross-border hydrogen economy and brings Europe closer to its sustainability and carbon neutrality goals.

Green Tech cluster will contribute to the range of activities:

• Hydrogen consumption cases in Marine sector including Green hydrogen and ammonia,
• Green ammonia production opportunities in Latvia,
• Green ammonia bunkering hub study utilizing existing Ammonia terminal infrastructure in port of Ventspils,
• Assessment of renewable energy potential for hydrogen and its derivatives production in Latvia,
• Diagnosis and Stakeholder analysis for the Latvia,
• Social awareness and acceptance activities for the hydrogen and new energies,
• Co-creation of the hydrogen market model,
• Strategic growth planning for the H2 valleys,
• Communication, learning, knowledge sharing and dissemination activities

Project partners

The consortium includes 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea region countries: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Latvia is represented by 2 partners:

• Ourselves – Green and Smart Technology Cluster Latvia
• Freeport of Riga Authority

Foreign partners:

• CLIC Innovation
• Gasgrid Finland
• Cybernetica
• Baltic Innovation Agency
• Solarstone
• Lithuanian hydrogen energy association (VEA)
• Hendrikson & Ko
• City of Tallinn
• Viru Vesinik
• PowerUP Fuel Cells
• Estonian Hydrogen Cluster
• ABB
• Helen
• Flexens
• P2X Solutions
• Vantaa Energy
• VTT Technical Research Center of Finland
• Polish Hydrogen Cluster
• IWEN Energy Institute
• Green NortH2 Energy
• Elomatic
• Borealis Polymers
• Elcogen
• Convion
• Aalto University
• Ballard Power Systems Europe
• Energy Cluster Denmark
• Rønne Havn
• Energy Valley
• Energiforsk
• Lhyfe
• RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
• Uppsala University
• Skyborn Renewables Sweden
• National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics Estonia
• Neste
• Wartsila Finland
• Viking Line
• Yara Finland

Project duration

The project started in June 2023 and lasts five years.

Project budget

The total volume of the project is 33 million euro, with a 25 million funding from the EU. Clean Hydrogen Partnership supports European hydrogen valley projects with RePowerEU funding from the commission.