New Oulu Port Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area Open for Investors

Oulu Port Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area

The reg­is­tra­tion pro­ce­dure is now open for oper­a­tors inter­est­ed in the Area 2, Vihreäsaari

Oulu, with Finland’s sec­ond busiest year-round air­port and largest gen­er­al port in the Both­n­ian Bay is a junc­tion for sea, rail­road, and road traf­fic. It is the most impor­tant com­mer­cial, logis­tic, and cul­tur­al hub of Arc­tic Europe and the gate­way to Arc­tic Europe regions. The avail­abil­i­ty of skilled work­force, sta­tus as a high-tech hotspot, excel­lent con­nec­tiv­i­ty and increas­ing pop­u­la­tion pro­vide an excel­lent plat­form for new invest­ments.

Now, great invest­ment pos­si­bil­i­ties in the Port of Oulu area are aris­ing. A new indus­tri­al site, Oulu Port Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area, from 40 ha up to 200 ha is under devel­op­ment pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for sus­tain­able, green tran­si­tion indus­try such as hydro­gen econ­o­my.

The city of Oulu is cur­rent­ly look­ing for poten­tial investors to be locat­ed in the new Oulu Port Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area 2, Vihreäsaari

Key ben­e­fits of the area

Loca­tion of the indus­tri­al site at the Port of Oulu (part of the Euro­pean TEN‑T Core Net­work) pro­vides excel­lent con­nec­tiv­i­ty, effi­cient trans­porta­tion options, and access to cut­ting-edge dig­i­tal solu­tions. Nuot­tasaari, which is in prox­im­i­ty of Oulu port green tran­si­tion indus­tri­al site, hosts sev­er­al indus­tri­al play­ers, pro­vid­ing good oppor­tu­ni­ties for syn­er­gies. Key enti­ties in the area include Sto­ra Enso’s Oulu fac­to­ry where large amounts of bio­genic CO2 is pro­duced.

Oulu Port green tran­si­tion indus­tri­al site lever­ages the pos­si­bil­i­ties brought by clean ener­gy. In Oulu there’s already exist­ing low-emis­sion ener­gy sys­tem and infra­struc­ture, high onshore wind pro­duc­tion and even high­er onshore and off­shore wind poten­tial, and emerg­ing solar pow­er. Plans to expand ener­gy infra­struc­ture to the new Oulu port green tran­si­tion indus­tri­al site pro­vide good pos­si­bil­i­ties for ener­gy inten­sive invest­ment. Exten­sive dis­trict heat­ing net­work pro­vides pos­si­bil­i­ties to uti­lize excess heat from indus­tri­al process­es.

The Nordic Hydro­gen Route, an ini­tia­tive to build up cross-bor­der hydro­gen infra­struc­ture in Both­n­ian Bay region, will also pro­vide excel­lent added val­ue to the hydro­gen econ­o­my invest­ments in Oulu port green tran­si­tion indus­tri­al site. The pipeline is planned to go through Oulu and will open hydro­gen mar­ket by 2030.

More infor­ma­tion on the hydro­gen in Oulu

Timetable for the site devel­op­ment

Land area delim­i­ta­tions are indica­tive and will be spec­i­fied in con­nec­tion with the zon­ing process.

Area 2 tar­get sched­ule

  • 2027 Spring: Legal­ly valid local detailed plan See the local detailed plan (in Finnish)
  • 2027 Spring: A build­ing per­mit can be applied for
  • 2027 Spring: Site can be accessed via the street net­work and the devel­op­ment of the plot can be start­ed
  • 2027: Con­struc­tion of streets in the area

Area 1 tar­get sched­ule

(reserved by Ver­so Ener­gy)

  • 2026 Spring: Legal­ly valid local detailed plan. 
  • 2026 Spring: Legal­ly valid local detailed plan. 
  • 2026 Spring: A build­ing per­mit can be applied for
  • 2026–2027: Con­struc­tion of streets in the area
  • 2026 Fall: The con­struc­tion of the plot can begin
  • 2030: The indus­tri­al area is con­nect­ed to a 400 kV pow­er­line
  • 2032 (esti­mat­ed): The indus­tri­al area is con­nect­ed to a hydro­gen pipeline

Area 3 tar­get sched­ule:

  • From 2030 onwards

Express your inter­est in the Oulu Port Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area 2, Vihreäsaari

If you’re inter­est­ed in the site, please, take part in the reg­is­tra­tion and eval­u­a­tion pro­ce­dure orga­nized by City of Oulu. The pro­ce­dure is car­ried out to find the most suit­able green tran­si­tion oper­a­tor (1) for the Oulu Port green tran­si­tion Area 2, Vihreäsaari

Suit­able can­di­date see the big poten­tial in the area and is will­ing to take part in the infra­struc­ture invest­ments, have strong con­nec­tion to the port oper­a­tions (big vol­umes of import / export), are ded­i­cat­ed to sus­tain­able and respon­si­ble oper­a­tion, sup­port the strate­gic goals of the City of Oulu and will be the key play­ers in form­ing the flour­ish­ing ecosys­tem of green tran­si­tion indus­try.

Reg­is­tra­tion and eval­u­a­tion pro­ce­dure

  1. Reg­is­tra­tion
    In the first step the appli­cant is asked to pro­vide a pre­sen­ta­tion about their project. The project descrip­tion must meet the cri­te­ria for the green tran­si­tion of the City of Oulu list­ed in the attached pre­sen­ta­tion. The sub­mis­sions can be sent until 30th of June, 2025. The most suit­able appli­cants will be select­ed to the next stage.
  2. Eval­u­a­tion
    Select­ed oper­a­tors are inter­viewed and pos­si­bly asked to pro­vide com­pli­men­ta­ry infor­ma­tion.
  3. Nego­ti­a­tions
    Based on the inter­views and data pro­vid­ed, few com­pa­nies will con­tin­ue to a nego­ti­a­tion phase (August 2025).
  4. Selec­tion
    Based on nego­ti­a­tions a deci­sion con­cern­ing the cho­sen appli­cant will be made and plan­ning reser­va­tion will be made in Octo­ber 2025.

The fol­low­ing fac­tors will be used as cri­te­ria for selec­tion:

  1. Fea­si­bil­i­ty of the operator’s plans in the area
  2. Suit­abil­i­ty for area locat­ed near the Port of Oulu
  3. Sup­port­ing the Strate­gic Objec­tives of the City of Oulu
  4. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Please leave your appli­ca­tions through this link to reg­is­ter for the selec­tion process

Send your appli­ca­tion here

Why locate in Oritkari Green Tran­si­tion Indus­tri­al Area

  • Close to the Port of Oulu, the biggest con­tain­er port in North­ern Fin­land
  • Avail­abil­i­ty of clean ener­gy
  • Abun­dance of clean water
  • Excel­lent logis­tic con­nec­tions
  • Pos­si­bil­i­ties for indus­tri­al syn­er­gies with Nuot­tasaari indus­tri­al site
  • Nordic hydro­gen route planned to go near­by.
  • Strong sup­port from the City of Oulu
  • High-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion and research insti­tu­tions near­by: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu is among the most sig­nif­i­cant hydro­gen research hubs in Fin­land.

More infor­ma­tion

Con­tact us

Janne Hietanie­mi

Key Account Direc­tor, Clean­tech and Indus­try
+358 40 649 1211
janne.hietaniemi@businessoulu.com

Janne Yli­ta­lo

Spe­cial­ist, Invest In and relo­ca­tion ser­vices
+358 400 999 523
janne.ylitalo@businessoulu.com