NEWS AND SNIPPETS

GREEN ECONOMY JOURNAL WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARD

GreenEconomy.Media is proud to announce that Green Economy Journal has won the Best Book and Periodical Publishing Company – South Africa in the MEA Business Awards 2022. This established awards programme identifies those individuals and companies who excel in their respective industries in the Middle East and Africa, in its search for the region’s finest businesses.

GREEN HYDROGEN SUMMIT 2022

Excerpt from Ramaphosa’s address at the summit

“This summit builds on a foundation laid by the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium (SIDS) 2021, which highlighted SA’s potential as an exporter of green energy.

We recently released for public comment a Just Energy Transition (JET) Investment Plan as the basis for our pathway towards a lowcarbon and climate resilient society. According to the plan, SA will need approximately $98-billion over the next five years to enable a just transition.

Green hydrogen is identified in the Investment Plan as one of the four “big frontiers” of a JET. Globally, the demand for green hydrogen and related products is rising significantly. This presents a unique opportunity for SA to link its mineral and renewable energy endowments to drive industrialisation.

The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) has been leading research in green hydrogen since 2007 through Hydrogen SA. This was motivated in part by the potential impact that the transition away from the internal combustion engine (ICE) to battery electric vehicles would have on the country’s platinum mining industry. Together, SA and Zimbabwe hold over 90% of the world’s known platinum group metal reserves.

Since 30-40% of the supply goes into the production of catalytic converters for ICE, the initial focus of the research was on hydrogenpowered fuel cell electric vehicles as an alternative market to the ICE vehicle.

It is estimated that SA has the potential to produce six- to 13-million tons of green hydrogen and derivatives a year by 2050. This would require between 140 and 300 gigawatts of renewable energy.

The focus would be on green hydrogen exports, electrolyser and fuel cell production, green steel, sustainable aviation fuel, ammonia, fertilisers and renewable energy components. SA has a supportive legislative environment and experience in the deployment of renewable energy with the largest installed capacity of wind and solar power projects in Africa. Last year at SIDS, we began to profile the remarkable work that several large and emerging South African companies were doing in

President the green hydrogen sector. These include the Boegoebaai Port and Ramaphosa Rail project. Sasol and the Northern Cape provincial government have made significant progress on the masterplan for a green hydrogen special economic zone, which aims to support 40 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity by 2050. This would require approximately 80 gigawatts of renewable energy, which is almost double South Africa’s current installed electricity generation capacity. Transnet has issued a request for proposals for the port and rail project, which could see the port developed by 2028. The Prieska Power Reserve Project, which is being led by Mahlako a Phala, a black women-owned renewable energy developer, has made major progress over the last year. It has received most of the required environmental approvals and its water use licence and has brought in the IDC as an equity partner. Another initiative is the development of a Hydrogen Valley that would link the three hydrogen hubs of Mogalakwena (Limpopo), Johannesburg and the Durban-Richards Bay hub. This initiative is being led by the DSI and supported by Anglo American, Bambili Energy and Engie.”

GREEN HYDROGEN PROGRAMME

The programme consists of 19 projects. Nine catalytic projects have been identified as part of this initiative: 1. Prieska Power Reserve, Northern Cape (NC) 2. Ubuntu Green Energy Hydrogen Project, NC 3. Boegoebaai Green Hydrogen Development, NC 4. Atlanthia Green Hydrogen, Western Cape (WC) 5. Upilanga Solar and Green H2 Park, NC 6. Sasolburg Green Hydrogen 60MW, Free State (FS) 7. SASOL HySHiFT, Mpumalanga 8. HIVE Ammonia, Eastern Cape (EC) 9. Hydrogen Valley programme (includes nine projects along the Limpopo, Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal Corridor.) Upcoming projects 10. Mainstream Renewable Energy Hydrogen, WC 11. AMSA Saldanha Steel Hydrogen project, WC 12. Enertrag Postmasburg project (ammonia), NC 13. HDF Energy Renewable Energy, IPM 1, Mpumalanga 14. Enertrag Indigen Project (e-methanol), EC 15. Isondo Fuel Cell MEAs Manufacturing, Gauteng 16. Isondo/NCP Vehicles, Gauteng 17. Saldanha Bay Green hydrogen project 18. Project Phoenix fuel cell manufacturing, FS 19. Cape Stack, WC

RAMAPHOSA: FOOD AND ENERGY

G20 Leaders’ Summit, Indonesia “Low- and middle-income economies are most affected by the food shortages and need substantial financial support to ensure food security and tackle the effects of climate change. With this support, poorer countries can invest in climate-smart agriculture, sustainable food production systems and climate change early warning systems.

Trade restrictions are a major source of risk for global food price stability. We support the call for multilateral trading systems that are transparent, inclusive, predictable and rules-based.”

CLIMATE FINANCE ACCELERATOR

Fifteen low-carbon projects from across SA have been selected to join the UK’s Climate Finance Accelerator second cohort of projects. The call for proposals attracted 166 applications. The chosen projects come from the energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry and other land uses, circular economy and water sectors. This follows a successful first round in 2021 that has so far seen almost a third of projects find new partners and investors.

A BLUE BIG DEAL

The Department of Water and Sanitation alongside the Dutch Water Authorities have officially initiated Phase 2 of the Blue Deal programme which seeks to enhance access to sufficient and safe water for all by 2030 and beyond.

PRESIDENT PARTNERS WITH UK

Ramaphosa has concluded his state visit to the UK, where he championed a new partnership between Britain. The president expressed his appreciation for King Charles III’s hosting of the state visit as well as the King’s visionary engagement on development, the environment and mitigation of climate change.

The president’s assignation with Prime Minister Sunak centred on upgrading trade and investment levels between the two countries and creating more opportunities in British markets for SA goods and commodities, to protect jobs in SA and grow the country’s manufacturing and agricultural industry.

Ramaphosa and Sunak engaged on the JET Investment Partnership in which the UK has committed itself alongside the US, EU, France and Germany to provide financial support for SA’s energy transition.

EDUCATION TRUST

The Nordex Education Trust awards bursaries to students, across the green energy. Most recently, this Trust has appointed two trustees to further strengthen its resolve to drive education within the beneficiary communities where Nordex Energy SA has built and is operating no less than nine wind farms.

“We work to specifically benefit students in the communities closest to where our wind farms operate and have hence built solid relationships within these community structures. Our mandate is that of provision of scholarships and bursaries, with an approach of supporting students for their three- or four-year periods of study, to ensure that they complete their tertiary education and can be further exposed to meaningful enterprising opportunities,” says Compton Saunders, MD, Nordex Energy SA and trustee of the Nordex Education Trust.

Acciona Gouda Wind Farm, operated by Nordex.

ECO SECURITY SYSTEMS

Environment Minister has published the revised national list of ecosystems that are threatened and in need of protection. A total of 120 of the 456 terrestrial ecosystem types assessed are threatened (10% of the remaining natural habitat in SA). Of the 120, 55 are critically endangered, 51 endangered and 14 are vulnerable.

INCREDIBLE IMPACT INVESTMENT

Multinational, TERRAGRN, is leading the charge against climate change by turning up to 200 000ha of unused land in coal mining-centred Mpumalanga into a $2.6-billion sustainable land management agroforestry project over the next 10 years.