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Regional Centres for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy

The success of the Hydrogen Centres of Vocational Excellence is driven by the strength and diversity of its regional partnerships. Each region involved brings its own expertise and focus within the hydrogen value chain. By harnessing the unique strengths of these regions, the initiative fosters local innovation while contributing to a unified European approach.

This collaboration ensures that skills development and hydrogen technologies are tailored to meet regional demands, creating sustainable, long-term benefits for both local economies and the wider energy transition.

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Eesti
Estonia

Estonia’s strong focus on hydrogen is part of the ambitious goal of using only 100 % renewable energy by 2030. The Hydrogen Valley Estonia is a two-year-old hydrogen initiative boosting hydrogen initiatives, and includes the most progressive enterprises in the country, as SKYCORP, EAVA, taltech and VOCO. HVE ecosystem is the world’s first nationwide hydrogen valley which is is a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative rather than a project.

A challenge is the lack of study and training programmes at the secondary and post-secondary vocational education and higher education levels.  ...get more information

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Івано-Франківськ
Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine)

Ukrainian vocational and higher education structure does not at the moment cover any competencies and/or programmes directly related to hydrogen technologies. The existing hydrogen competencies are instead maintained and/or constructed by staff with mainly field training.

At the same time, there are a number of initiatives which may lead to the growth of hydrogen-related technologies in the western part of Ukraine: injection of hydrogen into gas grids, use of hydrogen for transport, production and storage of green hydrogen, etc.  ...get more information

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Noord-Nederland
Northern Netherlands

The hydrogen valley of the northern Netherlands is scaling up and so is the energy transition. The existing education framework already has national acceptance but is still a first version.

But the region lacks engineers in the hydrogen technology in all applications of hydrogen technology and there is a need for new professionals and to re-educate the professionals from the fossil gas industry. The lack of well-trained technical personnel, this is where the greatest need lies.  ...get more information

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Tirol
Tyrol (Austria)

In Tyrol, the processes of cross-sectoral production, storage and application of green hydrogen are being investigated under real-life conditions with the aim of establishing a model for a largely autonomous regional green hydrogen economy. For example, a bakery and a butchers shop are supplied with process heat from green hydrogen. Heavy duty mobility applications are switching to hydrogen operation.

The different activities result in increasing lack of hydrogen competence and therefore high demand for craftsmen, mechanics, technicians, assemblers, technicians, storage operators, and IT specialists in the region.  ...get more information

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Vestland
(Norway)

As an oil- & gas-based region, Vestland must convert to new green industries to cut emissions, and through the mapping of green innovation projects, the picture shows there are several opportunities in the region. The rapid development within clean energy technologies such as hydrogen is expected to create many new job opportunities in the near future. High level of expertise from oil & gas, and access to large amounts of power, lay the foundation for Vestland to take a leading role as a producer of hydrogen.  ...get more information