Finland-Germany hydrogen cooperation: a practical signal for the Baltic Sea region
Finland and Germany have signed a statement of intent to deepen cooperation on hydrogen infrastructure, technology development and investments, with an explicit aim to strengthen clean energy markets in the Baltic Sea region. For Latvia and the wider Baltics, it is a useful case study of how a focused, long-term programme can connect renewable supply, industrial demand, and cross-border market design into a credible investment narrative.
NEWS
HydrogenLatvia
3/4/20263 min read
A recent statement of intent signed by Finland and Germany sets out a shared direction for cooperation on hydrogen infrastructure, hydrogen technology development and investments in the hydrogen sector. It is not a binding agreement, but it is still a meaningful signal: two governments are aligning their policy narrative around the same set of building blocks that investors and project developers typically look for - market visibility, infrastructure planning, and demand-side pathways for hydrogen and its derivatives.
The Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment frames the cooperation around three practical objectives:
Encouraging direct investment in clean energy production
Supporting industrial decarbonisation and other end-use sectors
Enabling further processing of hydrogen into products such as renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO)
In parallel, the statement explicitly references the Baltic Sea region and the EU internal market, which matters for smaller economies. When large member states treat regional market integration as part of the investment case, it reduces the risk that hydrogen value chains remain isolated national pilots.
Finland’s explicit target: 10% of EU clean hydrogen
One element that stands out is Finland’s stated ambition to account for 10% of clean hydrogen production in the EU, and at least the same share of hydrogen use. Targets do not guarantee delivery, but they do two things well:
They create a measurable reference point for policy, permitting and infrastructure decisions.
They help cluster actors (industry, ports, grid operators, technology suppliers, financiers) coordinate around a shared scale.
Finland also links this ambition to a concrete spatial logic: developing local hydrogen valleys and building national hydrogen infrastructure, with a longer-term objective of a nationwide hydrogen market built on regional valleys and the infrastructure connecting them by 2035.
Why this is a useful example for Latvia and the Baltics
For Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the core lesson is not to copy Finland’s numbers. The lesson is the structure of the programme logic:
Start from competitive system advantages. Finland consistently anchors its hydrogen narrative in system-level strengths (not only individual projects): access to clean electricity, industrial ecosystem, and opportunities to produce derivatives.
Connect domestic value creation with export logic. The Finnish press release stresses the importance of ensuring higher value added remains in-country, while still positioning Finland within European value chains. This is a relevant balance for the Baltics: export orientation is important, but local industrial renewal and skills development are what make the ecosystem resilient.
Treat infrastructure and market design as part of industrial policy. Hydrogen valleys are not only “projects”; they are a way to organise permitting, grid connection, offtake development, and shared infrastructure. When this is paired with cross-border cooperation (in this case with Germany), it becomes easier to argue for investment in pipelines, storage, ports, and RFNBO value chains.
Use bilateral cooperation to de-risk investment narratives. Germany brings scale of demand, industrial base, and storage capacity; Finland brings renewable potential. The logic is straightforward: cross-border complementarities can reduce market risk and help move from isolated demonstrations to bankable value chains.
A Baltic framing: from “projects” to an investable pipeline
In the Baltics, we often discuss hydrogen through the lens of individual initiatives - a production site, a mobility corridor, a port application, or a pilot in industry. Those are necessary, but not sufficient.
What Finland’s approach illustrates is the value of presenting hydrogen development as an integrated pipeline:
Where will clean electricity come from, and how will it be connected?
Which end-use sectors are realistic first movers (industry, maritime, heavy-duty transport, RFNBO)?
What shared infrastructure is needed, and what is the sequencing?
How is cross-border market access treated (Baltic Sea region, EU internal market)?
This is also relevant for Latvia’s work on alternative fuels infrastructure and the broader decarbonisation agenda in transport and industry. Hydrogen and RFNBO pathways will only scale if infrastructure planning, permitting capacity, and demand aggregation are treated as a coordinated programme rather than parallel discussions.
What to watch next
A statement of intent is an opening move. The practical follow-through will be visible in:
Joint workstreams on infrastructure planning and market rules
Concrete investment facilitation (project pipelines, permitting coordination, financing instruments)
Demand-side measures that make hydrogen and derivatives investable (industrial offtake, RFNBO markets)
For the Baltics, the immediate value is to use this example as a reference point when shaping our own hydrogen valley concepts, cross-border cooperation formats, and the investment narrative around renewable hydrogen and Power-to-X.
Sources: Finland and Germany sign statement of intent on hydrogen cooperation