We’ve spent the Christmas and New Year holidays on hydrogen; digging, reading, googling, thinking, discussing, walk around with skilled people, Teams meetings on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve, twisting and turning the aha experiences. But why? Relax, crack a nut and watch a movie instead, you might think.
Yesterday, Region Gävleborg posted a press release that 19 companies and organizations are behind. It is about Mid Sweden Hydrogen Valley, an initiative that is based on many players joining forces around different hydrogen solutions and doing something bigger, more important, which many more can benefit from.
The hydrogen issue has, at least in Sweden, long been stuck in an eternal loop that has always landed in the lack of infrastructure. No hydrogen filling stations, no vehicles. Conclusion: hydrogen is not for us, let’s just stop talking about it.
The industry has used hydrogen for over a hundred years however, so when Sandviken’s municipality, Sandvik and Linde set up Sweden’s fourth hydrogen filling station in Sandviken in 2016, it was actually no big deal – it was just a matter of connecting it to the existing hydrogen pipeline between Linde’s electrolyzer in Björksätra and Sandvik’s industrial area. But it was an important step towards the wave that is building up now. The fact that the industry and the municipality collaborated for something that can benefit more people was redemptive. It works. So, why not bring even more actors into the collaboration?
When Ovako in Hofors now aims at transforming its process for hot processing, they will require oxygen and hydrogen (instead of oxygen and propane). Since transporting hydrogen is still a bit challenging, an electrolyser would be convenient, from which Ovako would get both oxygen and hydrogen – in fact more hydrogen than they need, which means that they would easily be able to supply a filling station with hydrogen. The same could be done in Avesta where Outokumpu could make the same transformation. Another electrolyser in the Port of Gävle in order to offer hydrogen refuelling of vessels, trains and trucks. The port in the Netherlands have the same plans… Well, you understand where this is going, right? In addition, there are huge rock chambers in the Port of Gävle where hydrogen can be stored as back-up, both for the companies in the port and for Gävle Hospital and other public activities.
With several hydrogen filling stations in the region, Volvo becomes interested. They are, together with Daimler and Shell among others, investing heavily in hydrogen long haul trucks right now. It will also be interesting for researchers to come to the region, for new collaborations between regions and countries and interesting for companies to establish here. It also opens up for companies in the region to start considering hydrogen when restructuring their production, or creating new products for their customers who also want to transform into fossil free operations. New companies are emerging, innovation is being created, new jobs, faith in the future and hope. The wave builds up.
So, you might understand now why it wasn’t time to crack too many nuts during the Christmas and New Year holidays: Instead, it was time to write a lot about the emerging hydrogen society. And the story has just begun.
Here are the companies behind Mid Sweden Hydrogen Valley: Ovako, AB Sandvik Materials Technology, Outokumpu, Gävle Hamn, AB Volvo, Mellansvenska Handelskammaren, Region Gävleborg, Region Dalarna, Länsstyrelsen Gävleborg, Länsstyrelsen Dalarna , Vätgas Sverige, Högskolan i Gävle, Inlandsbanan, Linde Gas, Vattenfall, Statkraft Hydrogen Sweden AB, NITIU , Svea Vind Offshore and Hitachi ABB Power Grids. And us of course, writing about it.
