NORHyWAY was present at this year's European Hydrogen Valleys Investment Forum in Warsaw, 10–11 September, together with a Norwegian delegation put together by RENERGY, the project's coordinator. The forum gave NORHyWAY partners a platform among investors, valley projects and industry leaders from across Europe's hydrogen ecosystem.
NORHyWAY presented by Thomas Bjørdal, Cluster Manager at RENERGY/NORHyWAY coordinator
The Norwegian stand featured NORHyWAY partners GreenH and Hystar, alongside Hydrogen Mem-Tech, Ammobia and NTNU Energy, together covering everything from large-scale hydrogen infrastructure and electrolyser technology to membrane solutions, ammonia production and research.
NORHyWAY, represented by RENERGY cluster director Thomas Bjørdal, joined the panel discussion "Funding hydrogen infrastructure and valleys," alongside speakers including Valerie Bouillon-Delporte (Executive Director, Clean Hydrogen Partnership), Roland Schulze (Managerial Adviser, European Investment Bank) and Wojciech Lach (Head of Hydrogen Projects Coordination Team, ORLEN S.A.).
NORHyWAY joined the panel discussion "Funding hydrogen infrastructure and valleys"
The discussion centred on one of the sector's most pressing challenges: how to finance the infrastructure and hydrogen valleys needed to bring projects from pilot stage to full-scale operation. A recurring message from the panel was that hydrogen today is less a technology problem and more a question of demand and financeability. Projects are not viable without long-term offtake agreements and models for sharing risk between producers, customers, investors and public authorities. Hydrogen valleys such as NORHyWAY have an important role to play here, by coordinating actors across the value chain and building trust between producers and users, rather than simply owning infrastructure themselves.
NORHyWAY partners GreenH and Hystar was awarded Top Presenters
The conference brought together more than 150 participants, over 50 investors, corporates and experts, and facilitated more than 100 one-to-one meetings between companies and investors. 25 promising hydrogen start-ups pitched their projects, and an expert panel selected five companies as Top Presenters. Among the winners were two NORHyWAY partners: GreenH, represented by CEO Morten Solberg Watle, and Hystar, represented by Amalie Melsom, Head of Investor Relations & Strategy.
For NORHyWAY's partners, the forum offered the opportunity to build new relationships and potential partnerships with actors across the European hydrogen market in a region where Poland and the Baltics are currently seeing strong growth and investment appetite around "Energy Independence".
Morten Solberg Watle, CEO of GreenH
Amalie Melsom, Head of Investor Relations & Strategy at Hystar