– Join forces instead of battling from separate trenches
Valley Voice – a column where our cluster members are in focus. This week we talked with Hans-Jacob Samuelsen, Business Development Manager at Hydac. In August 2021 Hydac celebrated its first 20 years in Norway.
– It’s been a roller-coaster market, starting up just a month before 9/11 and multiple ups and downs in the market after that. The offshore market has been, and still is, a significant driver of the activity at Hydac in Norway, but the energy transition, combined with high activity within on-land fish farms, is ramping up to become increasingly important, says Samuelsen.
Hydac |
| HYDAC stands for hydraulics, systems, and fluid engineering. With more than 9,000 employees, 50 subsidiaries, and more than 500 service partners HYDAC is a worldwide reliable partner in fluid technology. The product range extends from components over subsystems to complex, controlled drive units for mobile and stationary units. In addition, they offer customers a large package of technical services around the HYDAC Fluid Engineering for hydraulic oil, lubricants, cooling lubricants, and water. Source: www.hydac.com |
1. What are you doing right now?
We were just in the very last stages of the plans for Nor-Shipping, which was to take place in January 2022. Hopefully, the fair can take place in April, so the wait won’t be too long. Showcasing cutting-edge solutions for green technologies like ballast water and scrubber water filtration, filtration of new marine fuels, and online monitoring for autonomous ships and installations, the fair is a very important event for us. This also goes for the ONS coming up in August 2022. There is a tremendous drive for new technologies in Norway. We see it in shipping regarding new fuels, we see it in mobile solutions with electrical machines and we see it in offshore applications being electrified or optimized to save vast amounts of energy.
2. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in the future?
One of the big challenges is to find Hydac’s rightful place in the new technologies that are emerging in Norway. There is a race to make sure that Norway will be a key player in the global energy transition. This generates a wish for fast deliveries of field-proven solutions for completely new technologies, which is a contradiction hard to solve. Establishing close and open joint development with our customers is a key to moving forward as fast as possible. With regards to opportunities, our long commitment to engineering and supplying cost-effective and flexible hydraulic systems for the hydropower industry is paying off and we see an upturn moving forward. This combined with high and increasing activity both with our known customer base within offshore, especially subsea, and increasing demands for water filtration for RAS fish farms, make the next years look very promising.
3. How is Hydac working to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050?
We are lucky to have a mother company focusing on new technology, reducing emissions at our customers, and optimizing our own production. It is a long-term strategy to be present in all large markets with local production, to minimize the need for transportation. Renewable energy is used on the sites. Being a family-owned German company with 9500 employees globally, our Norwegian office plays a small, yet important, role in the big picture. With centralized competence being built up around e-mobility, hydrogen/ammonia, energy recovery/saving, Norway is important as a front-runner in a lot of these technologies.
4. What keeps you awake at night with regards to the energy transition?
I think that must be how we as a business and I as a person can make the necessary contribution to enable the energy transition and handle the potential energy crisis when old technology is phased out. Making sure that the politicians, scientists, experts, and activists join forces instead of battling from separate trenches, is of importance.
5. What do you think will be the most valuable thing about being a member of Energy Valley?
Definitely the network of companies and people which are forward-leaning and innovative, giving us the opportunity to better know who to talk to, where to seek advice, what the industry needs, and who needs our competence and solutions.
6. Is there any book that has inspired you in the way you lead?
Being in the middle of a management study at BI, I have been fascinated reading “The fearless organization” by Amy C. Edmondson. Very interesting to see how the lack of psychological safety overturned strong companies like Nokia and VW. Learning from other people’s mistakes can be a wise thing.
7. Which Energy Valley member do you want to pass the baton on to?
I would like to challenge Tina Ree Eines in Haakon Ellingsen AS to take over the baton.
Thank you, Hans-Jacob!