Africa well-positioned to play a key role in a future hydrogen economy

Africa is well placed to participate in the emerging global hydrogen economy, South African Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa highlighted on Tuesday. He was addressing the African Energy Week conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Africa’s solar and wind resources positioned the continent as a very favourable place to produce green hydrogen. He further pointed out that a number of green hydrogen projects were already under development on the continent. Europe, Japan and South Korea were all likely to import large quantities of green hydrogen from Africa.

However, it would require investments of between $450-billion to $900-billion to allow the continent to reach its green hydrogen production potential. These investments would be required to build both the renewable-energy sources needed to power green hydrogen production and the electrolysers needed to produce it.

And the renewable-energy capacity required to produce the green hydrogen would be substantial. Ramokgopa put the total as ranging from 510 GW to 975 GW.

But large-scale production of green hydrogen could create up to 3.7-million direct and indirect jobs, across the continent, he noted. It would also support African industrialisation.

The continent, he also highlighted, was also abundantly endowed with the critical energy minerals required for future green energy production. These included cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel and the rare earth elements.