South Africa has assumed the chairmanship of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA), the government has announced.
The country will use the opportunity to advance the green hydrogen agenda on the continent and support opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, technology transfer, economic and employment opportunities, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on the sidelines of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
The alliance was formed in May 2022 by Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa to drive decarbonisation through green hydrogen. Ethiopia and Angola are also to become members, it was announced this week. The partnership focuses on public and regulatory policy, capacity building, financing and certification needs to mobilise green hydrogen production for domestic use and export.
“Green hydrogen and its associated large scale renewable energy production has the potential to support the expansion of the electricity transmission infrastructure, to add additional renewable energy generation capacity and to support the local development of renewable energy,” Ramokgopa said.
“As such it is a key component of South Africa’s future energy mix to achieve sustainable energy security,” he added.
The Department of Science and Innovation launched the Hydrogen Society Roadmap in 2021. It sketches out four goals – to decarbonise transport and heavy industry; to green power generation; to create an export market for green hydrogen and green ammonia; and to locally manufacture the components of a green hydrogen supply.
Green hydrogen differs from ordinary hydrogen production, which is very energy intensive, by using renewable energy sources.
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