Hitachi Energy to double production with €180 million investment in Vaasa plant

Japanese technology group Hitachi Energy will invest €180 million to expand its transformer factory in Vaasa, Finland, doubling production capacity by 2027 to meet surging global demand for electrical components, reports Finnish broadcaster Yle.

The expansion comes as electricity markets have rapidly doubled in size, driven by accelerating electrification and the global shift toward renewable energy. “Renewable energy is now the cheapest and fastest to deploy new energy source. Global demand is strong, and specifically for clean energy,” said Matti Vaattovaara, CEO of Hitachi Energy Finland.

The new 40,000-square-meter facility will create 200 jobs and enable production of industrial-scale transformers. Vaattovaara noted that current capacity is insufficient to meet demand, calling the factory a “bottleneck in the electrification transition.”

Key growth areas include electrification of district heating, transport, and industry—particularly Finland’s green steel projects, which require substantial transformer capacity. The factory will also house advanced testing facilities to support product development.

In parallel, Hitachi is collaborating with VTT Technical Research Centre and the University of Vaasa to improve green hydrogen technology. The goal is to halve energy losses in electrolysis, though Vaattovaara cautioned that scaling hydrogen production to industrial levels will take years of development, dependent on both technological progress and policy decisions.

“Losses must decrease for hydrogen production to become commercially viable,” he said.