Sustainable energy non-profit Go Green Africa has collaborated with the UK’s University of Cambridge on a research project to bring affordable green hydrogen power to South Africa and the rest of the continent.
This is according to Iain Banner, founder of Go Green Africa, delivering a “call to action” presentation this week at the Enlit Africa Conference, in Cape Town.
Cape Town-based Go Green Africa is a network of organisations and individuals committed to accelerating Africa’s transition to a green economy in a just and inclusive way.
According to Banner, a net-zero Africa, with a diversified and sustainable economy able to provide all of its citizens with the desired quality of life, will need to embrace the green transformation now under way across the globe.
Go Green Africa, he added, has started this journey in Cape Town, with an initial focus on the e-mobility sector.
Banner emphasised that green hydrogen, which is hydrogen generated by renewable energy or from low-carbon power, could be the answer to the country’s power woes.
A year ago, Banner was approached by the University of Cambridge, proposing a collaboration between Go Green Africa and the university’s Dr Jonathan Bean, a physicist who is conducting research on developing low-cost green hydrogen.
Dr Bean, also CEO of bio-nanotechnology firm Materials Nexus, is working on potential breakthrough research that would see Go Green Africa bringing low-cost green hydrogen to Africa.
“Green hydrogen currently costs between $7 and $8 per kilogram. It is currently not economically sustainable. But apart from that, what people don’t talk about is that when you split the atom and separate the hydrogen from the oxygen, you need the rare earth metal called the iridium as part of the separation process,” explained Banner.
“But you’d also need 40 times the amount of iridium that’s been identified to date, in order to go through that separation process. So, Dr Jonathan has come on-board, with his machine learning partner at Oxford University, and they are busy right now reimagining green hydrogen with an aim to have electrons sitting at the middle, rather than iridium.”
While the world is in the nascent stages of using green hydrogen, there are many projects across the emerging value chain highlighting significant opportunities for the alternative power source, as a global race to develop affordable green hydrogen ensues, Banner pointed out.
According to the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy for SA, published by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in November 2022, among the benefits of green hydrogen is that it is a clean energy and the only waste it generates is water. It is also renewable energy produced from natural resources. Green hydrogen can be compressed and stored in ad hoc tanks for a long time, according to the document.
Energy experts have long believed green hydrogen is the answer to Africa’s power challenges, mainly due to the continent’s high potential for renewable energy generation, particularly from solar and wind, states the DTI.
However, the high costs of producing the green energy remain a major barrier, because hydrogen must be derived from inputs such as natural gas or renewable electricity, meaning the cost of hydrogen rises alongside these resources, Banner noted.
It is anticipated that in many countries across the globe, governments will need to subsidise green hydrogen in the short- to medium-term, to make it affordable and create a viable and sustainable market for the gas, states the DTI strategy document.
According to Banner, the project with the University of Cambridge is anticipated to run for about 18 months, after which it will be trialled in Africa.
“Just imagine if we as Go Green Africa could have helped to bring about change that results in green hydrogen not costing $7 to $8, but costing around $2 to $3 per kilogram, where suddenly a company like Sasol could run on green hydrogen and immediately the whole of SA becomes green. That is what Go Green Africa is working on.”
The members of Go Green Africa hold regular meetings and workshops to brainstorm how they could move this project forward, concluded Banner.
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