The BalticSeaH2 project starts building a hydrogen valley around the Baltic Sea
The project's goal is to establish an integrated hydrogen economy to achieve energy self-sufficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The production potential for hydrogen is expected to reach 100,000 tonnes annually. Aalto University is part of the project and will focus on studying the use of data-mediated network effects to boost the growth in the hydrogen valley.
Hydrogen valley with its rich value chain offers an exciting research setting to study digital platforms and network effects. Sharing information through digital platforms offers potential to remove friction and leverage complementarities across participants.
鈥漌hile society often rightfully views platform economy as a threat and has traditionally focused on regulation, this project provides an exciting opportunity to study how platform economy and its growth engine, network effects, can be leveraged for good and virtuous purposes, in this case winning the market for low-emission hydrogen.鈥, says Assistant Professor Kimmo Karhu from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
The project will also showcase different sectors of the hydrogen economy, attracting over 4000 million euros in investments. For example, Aalto University鈥檚 long-term strategic partner ABB will develop and demonstrate megawatt-class fuel cell solutions that enable emission-free maritime transport in collaboration with its partners. The project is set to begin in June 2023 and last for five years, with a total budget of 鈧33 million, including 鈧25 million in EU funding.
The consortium includes 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea region countries: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
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Strategic corporate partner ABB
Aalto University and ABB cooperate in many different areas, and all six Aalto schools are involved. The cooperation has continued for more than 130 years.
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