Explore every episode of the podcast Hydrogen Valley Podcast

The previous episodes have dived into the nitty gritty details of varied topics related hydrogen economy.

But a lot has happened in the 6 to 12 months since most of the previous episodes were recorded. The world, the global economy and our joint energy security all look more uncertain now.

And its early days for the green hydrogen economy itself, with many uncertainties. What this means for the hydrogen economy, its future and its significance for all our futures?

The episode pans out to get a bigger and fuller picture of where green hydrogen economy is today - and what kind of futures it may have.

Episode guest:

Riitta Silvennoinen, Managing Director, H2 Cluster Finland

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interview was recorded in May 2026.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Firms and governments are pushing for hydrogen initiatives for financial gains and to combat climate change, and for good reason: hydrogen can be a key component in our transition to green energy.

But do these good ends also reach all?

Many of the costs and benefits from the initiatives are felt and divided unequally. They also affect people and peoples with less voice and power.

Is the transition to green hydrogen economy socially just?

And what risks are there if we do not consider this viewpoint and garner support and social acceptance?

Episode guest:

Essi Laitinen, Doctoral Researcher, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interview was recorded in June 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Green hydrogen is still more expensive than the carbon-intensive alternatives. So called sector couplings or sector integrations are an important way to combat this.

These come in varied shapes and sizes. Common to them is that they are best realised when they are also geographically close or even co-located.

This is why we also talk about hydrogen valleys.

But what are the valleys? And the sector couplings? What is needed to form them?

Episode guests: Heli Virkki, VP, Hydrogen valleys and customer projects, Gasgrid Simo Säynevirta, Head of H2 Springboard ecosystem, ABB Kimmo Karhu, Assistant professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in June and November 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hydrogen has been used in many industries for a long time. But the hydrogen has been gray; that is produced from fossil fuels. Replacing gray for green hydrogen in industrial uses could reduce carbon emissions greatly - and doing that seems like the lowest hanging fruit for advancing the hydrogen economy. But how low does it actually hang?

Episode Guests: Mikko Rönkä, Asset Transformation Manager, Borealis Veera Kiiskinen, Project and Development Lead, Green North Energy

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in June 2025 and February 2026.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hydrogen economy needs supporting infrastructure. Hydrogen is a gas. We have transported and stored various gases in pipes and tanks for well over a century.

Is hydrogen somehow different to for example natural gas? Can we reuse existing transmission infrastructure? Where should new hydrogen pipes be built and why? How is the electricity grid connected to this decision? And how the electricity grid infrastructure supports the hydrogen economy?

Episode Guests:

Esa Hallivuori, Senior Vice President, Gasgrid

Janne Seppänen, Senior Expert - Strategic Grid Planning, Fingrid, and Professor of Practice, Aalto University

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in May-June 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com and is licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 license.

We have known how to produce hydrogen for over 100 years - but mostly relying on carbon-intensive production methods. Currently, greener and cleaner hydrogen production is more expensive.

To bring the cost down, we need to scale up the production capacity. How is green hydrogen produced? What are the bottlenecks and costly steps? How can we solve them and ramp up production capacity?

Episode guests:

Tanja Kallio, Associate Professor, Aalto University Tuomo Rinne, Vice President, Business Development, P2X Solutions

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in late April-June 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Show(el) Me the Money! Hydrogen Regulation, Incentives, and Investments.

In addition to being a key part of the green energy transition, the hydrogen economy has been hyped up as a potential gold mine and creator of jobs by industry pundits and governments alike.

But investments have been slower and smaller than initially anticipated. Stories about the death of the hydrogen hype have been piling up in the media lately. Why is this? Is the hydrogen economy takeoff really stalling? And what roles regulation, incentives and investments play in all this?

Episode Guests:

Christian Langen, Executive in Residence, Aalto University

Janne Peljo, Chief Policy Adviser, Finnish Confederation of Industries

Jan Feller, CEO, German-Finnish Chamber of Commerce

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in May-June 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Firms, the EU and national governments are now investing and betting large sums of money on green hydrogen. It is seen as a big component in our urgently needed transition to greener forms of energy to fight climate change.

But hydrogen has been used in industry for over a hundred years. Why are we pinning our hopes on green hydrogen now? Is the hype warranted? What’s different now?

Episode guests:

Mika Järvinen, Associate professor, Aalto University

Simo Säynevirta, Head of H2 Springboard ecosystem, ABB

Samuel Cross PhD, Coordinator, Hydrogen Innovation Center, Aalto University

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

Episode interviews were recorded in late April 2025.

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hydrogen is expected to be a key part of our green energy transition. But we have used hydrogen for over 100 years. Why is there hype around hydrogen now? Are the hopes warranted? What is required to make the hydrogen economy a reality?

In the soon to be published Hydrogen Valley Podcast, Mikko Heiskala, a visiting researcher at the Department of Industrial Engineering at Aalto University interviews researchers and industry experts from the BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley, the European H2 Valley of the Year 2025 to understand what the hydrogen economy is about, its components, and what is needed to make it a reality.

Subscribe or follow now so you do not miss the episodes!

The podcast has received financial support from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University.

BalticSeaH2 Hydrogen Valley -project, is co-funded by the European Union through Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Hydrogen Valley Podcast is scripted, recorded, edited, mixed, and hosted by Mikko Heiskala.

The podcast tune song is Limit 70 by Kevin MacLeod:

Attribution Code "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/