Innovation-Friendly Regulation: A Regulatory experimentation zone for renewable energy and green hydrogen in Ostrobothnia

Tuesday 17.3

16:00 17:30

Art Hall

The overall goal of the experimentation zone is to strengthen regional, national and EU-level competitiveness by creating a regulatory environment that de-risks investments, allows companies to test future energy technologies ahead of competitors, and positions Ostrobothnia and Finland as a frontrunner in clean industrial transformation. In practice, this concept would provide a framework for regulatory experimentation projects, allowing and supporting them to test new technological configurations and business models.

Regulatory sandboxes and experimentation have become a central element in the European Union’s emerging innovation and competitiveness agenda. The aim being experimentation-based regulation as a way to accelerate the uptake of new technologies while safeguarding public interests. The Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) explicitly encourages Member States to establish regulatory sandboxes to accelerate the development, testing, and validation of clean technologies. In Finland, the practical use of regulatory sandboxes and experimental legislation has remained limited.

This session explores the implementation of a regulatory sandbox and experimentation zone for renewable energy, green hydrogen and CCU in Ostrobothnia. The session showcases how an experimentation zone focusing on the piloting of new system configurations with microgrids, tailored electricity tariffs, electricity market licensing, conversion to e-fuels, could allow and support companies to test new innovations and business models.

The session will include keynote speeches on EU-level ambitions on regulatory experimentation, international examples and experiences of regulatory sandboxes and insights on Ostrobothnia’s prospects for developing a regulatory experimentation zone. Moreover, the session delivers a panel discussion including EU, national and regional level actors that dives into the question of how a regulatory experimentation zone in Ostrobothnia could act as a pioneering initiative supporting national and EU ambitions in practice.