The project development company, Flexens, is planning to build Finland’s largest hydrogen production plant in terms of capacity. Gasgrid Finland and Flexens will begin the region’s hydrogen network development work and invite the regional stakeholders and industrial parties to join in. The hydrogen network development in the region has a concrete connection with the development of the national hydrogen network as well as the Nordic Hydrogen Route Bothnian Bay (NHR) project, which is a joint hydrogen transmission infrastructure development project between Gasgrid Finland and Swedish Nordion Energi.
The NHR Bothnian Bay project aims to develop a 1,000 km long hydrogen transmission network and an open hydrogen market in the Bothnia Bay region by 2030. Gasgrid Finland and Flexens intend to find out together with other stakeholders in the region how hydrogen industry in the region can connect to the national and regional hydrogen network in the future.
“The largest hydrogen production plant project in Finland planned for Kokkola is a significant and concrete step towards the development of hydrogen economy and the development of an increasingly comprehensive hydrogen transmission infrastructure. The hydrogen production plant and the NHR project together can speed up the green industrialization of the region and the development of the hydrogen economy in the wider Kokkola economic area as well,” says Olli Sipilä, CEO of Gasgrid Finland.
In the future, the hydrogen produced in the planned production plant in Kokkola can be transmitted and stored in the hydrogen transmission network developing in the region, in the construction of which Gasgrid Finland plays a key role. “In this way, the conditions are created for wider trading of hydrogen and the development of the hydrogen infrastructure and market. Pioneer projects like the Kokkola production plant also promote further development of the hydrogen transmission infrastructure,” Sipilä estimates.
Green hydrogen and ammonia are planned as the main products of the Kokkola facility. The plant also contributes to the energy needs of Europe and strengthens the self-sufficiency of fertilizer production.
“The project planned by Flexens aims at high-value hydrogen products and shows how the region’s excellent renewable energy resources and the region’s forward-looking industry can concretely accelerate the development of Finland’s hydrogen economy. In turn, the hydrogen network can promote investment conditions in the region,” says Gasgrid Finland ‘s head of Strategic Analysis and RDI unit Sara Kärki. “We believe that hydrogen production will open up significant export opportunities and attract new investments to Finland.”
“The market prospects for green hydrogen and ammonia are excellent. The Northern hydrogen bay, BotH2nia, which is being built in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Bothnian Bay area, is estimated to be able to meet a significant amount of the energy needs of the whole of Europe in the form of hydrogen. Additionally, of the domestic production capacity of 1,000 megawatts set in Finland’s climate and energy strategy, Kokkola’s 300-megawatt plant would already fulfil a third,” says Flexens CEO Berndt Schalin.
Gasgrid Finland and Flexens, together with other operators in the Kokkola area, intend to carry out a survey on the requirements for the development of local, and thereby also regional and national hydrogen infrastructure. “Together with Flexens, we are inviting parties from the Kokkola area who are interested in the hydrogen economy to participate in the survey,” says Kärki.
More information:
Olli Sipilä, CEO, Gasgrid Finland, tel. +358 40 589 4686, olli.sipila@gasgrid.fi
Sara Kärki, Head of Unit, Strategic Analysis and RDI, Gasgrid Finland, tel. +358 40 158 1722, sara.karki@gasgrid.fi
Read more:
You can find more information on the Flexens website: https://flexens.com/news/
Flexens Oy Ab is a project developer and investor implementing critical technologies needed to enable societies to run 100 % renewable energy sources. Flexens was founded in 2018 to capitalise on the skills and capabilities created in building the world-leading RES testbed and demo platform, Smart Energy Åland, capturing the rapidly growing demand for renewable energy systems.