Energy Technology Cluster Programme

The Energy Technology Cluster Programme focuses on the industry that produces machines and equipment for production, use and distribution of energy, as well as companies that produce services for this sector. There are significant growth opportunities for international business in this area.

The cluster is comprised of five centres of expertise focused on energy, supported by Finland’s leading energy technology firms, university departments and research establishments. The other participants in this cluster are technology centre organisations in Vaasa, Jyväskylä, Tampere and Joensuu. 

The Satakunta region has Finland’s most significant and most varied range of power generation industries (water, wind, biomass, coal and nuclear power). Satakunta also has a number of important companies in the metals industry, whose potential for development can influence national as well as international political and technological trends in the field of energy.

In the previous programme phase, the Satakunta Centre of Expertise programme for materials engineering gave rise to the previously mentioned networks and research structures to support and promote development and growth. The Magnet Technology Research Centre, the Drinking Water Institute, Äetsä Hydrogen Village, Finnfusion and the multi-metal programme are structures working within national and international networks which have strong links to the metals and energy industries. Prizztech activities in this area led to the creation of a decentralised energy production technology network, which has excellent facilities to benefit other parts of the energy technology cluster.

The starting point for Satakunta’s new programme has been to unite the technological interfaces between the energy and metals industries, which provides a supportive regional basis for national and international challenges.

Satakunta’s themes in the cluster are Future Basic Energies and Renewable energies. In this overall context, Satakunta has a responsibility to perform a leading function at national level in magnet technology, materials/production engineering for the energy industry and future basic energies (fusion, fission, hydrogen).

The focus of Future Energy Technologies is divided into two parts: nuclear power technology and hydrogen technology. The nuclear power technology section consists of the FinNuclear industrial cooperation programme, that also contains the FinnFusion section, which has already been run for 15 years. The hydrogen technology section consists of piloting hydrogen and fuel cell technology and the piloting environment established in the previous programme phase.

In the Renewable energies, the focus is on the energy industry materials and production technologies, specifically on the industry producing key components for the energy industry.