Advancing the Nordic Hydrogen Innovation Network

In Scandinavia most activities within hydrogen for transport is coordinated in the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership (SHHP) which is constituted by national hydrogen transport network bodies in Norway (HyNor), Denmark (Hydrogen Link) and Sweden (Hydrogen Sweden). SHHP works towards establishing an early infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations by 2015 that enables driving hydrogen fuelled vehicles in Scandinavia. In Iceland, Icelandic New Energy (INE) has been the key player functioning mostly as an enabler for the hydrogen technology, i.e. providing infrastructure with partners, demonstrating vehicles and coordinating most of RD & D activities connected to hydrogen. In Finland, the key players in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells R&D are Tekes, VTT and the Fuel Cell Finland Industry Group, with activities so far mainly in research, development and societal studies. The main hypothesis of this report is that the success of advancing hydrogen for transport and of realizing the SHHP goals is manly depending on securing an effective user-driven colorant triple helix innovation process between industry, academic and governments on multiple levels in terms of actors from local, regional, national and international level, thus demanding cross-border collaboration. For the purpose, the project partners compiled a list of relevant actors throughout the Nordic countries, carried out meetings with and visits to interested actors, co-organised three networking conferences (in Iceland, Finland and Norway), presented the project in the context of relevant seminars and exhibitions, distributed a targeted invitation leaflet to key network actors, assessed the collaboration possibilities between SHHP, Iceland and Finland, and also contributed to the initiation of relevant R/D/D projects by putting relevant actors together. This enabled a successful Scandinavian application for an EU-supported lighthouse demonstration project.