Panel discusses hydrogen energy potential

Nicolas Lecomte, HDF

Southern and East Africa

When you look at europe, they want to import 10 million tons of hydrogen from 2030 and it cannot happen without Africa.

We spoke about the resources in Africa, It's remarkable.

It's a redistribution of opportunities. The opportunity for Zimbabwe is to be in the first train, to be part of the change. And I believe that in the Zimbabwe of tomorrow, the fuel for cars, the one that is the cheapest can be the one produced from the liver, from the lake and so all the positive implications of having that local economy of hydrogen to come.

Namibian embassy

Gawachas

We are signatory to the eU protocols and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, so my country is very much invested and committed in promoting partnerships which would aid and also facilitate the liberalisation of the African continent.

The vision is far greater than one single country and it is the hope of my government to create green ecosystems and also of green infrastructures, not only across southern Africa but ultimately around the continent, and ensure energy security for all.

This is a vision already fulfilled at a regional level as a member of the Southern Africa Power Pool.

But that being said, merely from a scientific perspective, namibia is the paragon on the continent in terms of green hydration development.

We are also well on our way to create a green fuels industry which will have a market intervention capacity of 10 to 15 million tons of green hydrogen by 2050.

So the most obvious answer would have to pivot towards our abundant natural resources.

There's a region in the country called the soap tape, sperkhabit and the quadrant elements and Tana, you've done a great job of mentioning them, such as the stable solar supply and wind supply for power generation of water molecules, and sufficient square footage is present but I believe that the trojan horse that really anchors namibia's director official for

Zemha position to be a forerunner in this green hydrogen space is our proven political landscape, our economic stability.

I mean, for the past 33 years, namibia has proven itself to be an African reference for reliability in terms of investment.

We offer ease of profit repatriation, ease of business and also fit for purpose legislation.

There's no other jurisdiction that has a combination of resources and also good governance.

Sosten Ziuku, director of energy conservation and renewable in Energy ministry

I will just be brief and indicate that there has been a lot of interest in green hydrogen, particularly from europe.

The european Union, led by the German government, actually signed an MOU with an organisation called the Southern Africa Centre for Renewable energy and energy efficiency and SASKA.

They are all based in Botswana, to find a green hydrogen Atlas map for Africa and as a ministry we participated in providing the information that is required.

That was up to november last year and at this stage we await all the compilation of the inputs such that a clear database or a satellite image of the potential for green hydrogen in Africa is mapped on a regional basis. That is a SADC level and so forth.

Misheck Siyakatshana ZERA technical director

Firstly, I would firstly state that one of the key functions of ZeRA is to promote, encourage the employment and the deployment of renewable energy sources and attendant technologies, given that green hydrogen offers so much potential in terms of decarbonising the grid, decarbonising transport, decarbonising heat and as a fixed stop for green ammonia, we think it certainly warrants our attention and we have been actively involved in the development of this energy source.

Obviously, we evaluating the relative costs and advantages of green hydrogen, we take cognisance of the on-going advances in competing technology.

Obviously, green hydrogen has special applications, but completes applications in the grid with storage batteries.

It competes with ev's in decarbonising transport, and it competes in green ammonia, competes in iron and steel, decarbonising it.

So we look at the relative advantages of green hydrogen and one of the issues that also concerns hydrogen is that it's very difficult to handle, it’s highly flammable and potentially explosive.

So in terms of the framework for developing green hydrogen, we have issues of regulations and that contain.

This is why different sectors of the hydrogen sphere are at different stages of development.

Of course, when you have to consider transportation of energy or having it in a public domain, there's different legislation and security required, as opposed to a contained usage.

So this is why maybe in industry there's much broader usage, the road map, for example to use hydrogen during mobility, for mobility is significantly different to other applications.

John Diya, director

I would like to start by commenting that from the perspective of the continent Africa of course through its individual countries has always been participating in COPs meetings and in those meetings at individual levels, we have made commitments to the effect that we are going to reduce the level of the greenhouse gas emissions and then to also to add on, as alluded to during the dinner last night and also during the day in earlier presentations today we want to acknowledge the diversity that Africa holds in terms of mineral resources that are key to the production of components that are used in the running up of renewable technology and in particular for Zimbabwe, I am happy to echo the sentiments of the government that no mineral is going to be exported without beneficiation.

And obviously when we go renewable it means we are going to have even more benefit and this is good for the economy in the sense that we all create more employment and also grow our economy, so there is every reason for Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular to embrace

ZETDC acting managing renewable energy.

now coming to this new technology, green hydro technology, for most of us, it is a new kid on the block.

We don't fully understand it, but nonetheless with the little appreciation that we have at this juncture, we are able to take note of the fact that the renewables that we have and that are planned, they are limited because the capacity that we can take up has to correspond to the other conventional generation technologies to ensure system security and system reliability and as such we are so excited that even when we look into the future as we increase the capacity of renewable energy, we would run out of capacity from those facilities, for example in Zimbabwe, Kariba Power Station and obviously forthcoming a large hydro power station for use in regulation capacity and also in stabilising the grid, which means we would very much welcome technologies that can run parallel to the storage that we envisage to be undertaken by the large hydros.

So, it would come in as a complimentary technology.

My only worry and concern is we all know that Once Upon a time some of the technologies and facilities that we enjoy using to date, at some point they were being shunned because people were saying it is not doable, it cannot be done, but there are people who took a step forward and said I am going to support this and because of that we enjoy some of the facilities today and in similar fashion as a utility through this ZeSA holdings and Zimbabwe electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, I would like to say we are happy to go through the journey of discovering this technology, but also hoping that other parties will come along to ensure that at the end of the day, as we are required to procure power competitively, the end use customer is not made to pay exorbitant tariffs.

So, it is also my plea that this journey as a utility will also walk it together with those that can help in bringing up both subsidies so that this technology and the wet strings associated with it would become a success.