SA backs green hydrogen push
South African trade minister Parks Tau says the government views green hydrogen as part of a broader industrialisation agenda.
Tau was speaking at the Africa Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town, Western Cape.
According to Tau, hydrogen, together with sustainable aviation fuel, green chemicals and green shipping fuels, advanced manufacturing and new export industries, will help catalyse South Africa's reindustrialisation.
“These are the opportunities that matter. These are the industries that will determine South Africa's competitiveness in the decades ahead. Our ambition is clear. We must export more value and less raw potential. We must move up the value chain. We must become producers, not merely providers of resources,” Tau said on Tuesday.
He added that, through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) programme management office at the Industrial Development Corporation, the government had identified 24 strategic integrated projects. Several have already reached the pre-feasibility stage and are backed by €40 million from Germany's KfW Development Bank.
“In August, Climate Fund Managers closed the first R3 billion of the South Africa Green Hydrogen Fund, anchored by the European Commission through the Global Gateway commitment secured with the European Union at last year's G20.
“That same Global Gateway has put a further R628 million in grants on the table directly: R490 million to leverage hydrogen infrastructure investment, projected to mobilise a further R10 billion, and R138 million to help Transnet green its own operations,” Tau said.
He said South Africa's industrial transition pathways could create tens of thousands of additional jobs and generate billions of rand in economic activity in the years ahead.
“I have continuously stressed the need for us to work as a region to build this prosperity. Through platforms such as the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance, we are strengthening cooperation across the continent, because no single African country will build this economy alone, but together we can build a scale that makes Africa's offer to the world impossible to ignore,” he said.
Tau said that, through the Critical Infrastructure Programme Fund, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) is supporting Hive Hydrogen in developing South Africa's lighthouse green hydrogen project, the Coega Green Ammonia Project.
“This will not only benefit the region but will also contribute to the broader economic landscape of South Africa. This funding announcement today is particularly significant as it practically puts in motion the Decarbonisation pillar of our Industrial Development Strategy.
“Hive Hydrogen concludes financial due diligence, unlocking R12.5 million of R25 million in project development funding, with a further funding application for R25 million to be submitted at financial close,” he said.
– SAnews.gov.za
