JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In addition to providing innovative support for green hydrogen first movers, South Africa has now also tracked advances in this country's green hydrogen space in a publication that reflects investment opportunities underpinning industrial decarbonisation, localisation, export development and job creation.

In June the green hydrogen and power-to-x (PtX) project opportunity was officially launched and now, in September, the Green Hydrogen Deal Book has been brought to the fore so that pioneering projects across hydrogen-enabled sustainable fuel, industrial decarbonisation and green manufacturing value chains can be hailed.

Developed through a Just Energy Transition Investment Plan programme, this developer-investor engagement platform is indicative of South Africa’s green hydrogen keenness.

Readers of Mining Weekly will recall that at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation conference in Vienna on April 8, South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan Programme Management Office programme director: green hydrogen Dr Rebecca Maserumule described South Africa as being at a green hydrogen inflection point comparable with this country's 2009 renewable energy inflection point.

“We’ve done it with renewables successfully. We moved from strategy and policy to execution very well and I think today we’re standing here in 2026 because we had a great run of moving to renewables and getting projects on the ground.

“This is what makes the next stage of just adding an electrolyser, moving the molecules, either for domestic or export, really enabling for South Africa. This is why I know, without any doubt in my mind, we can do it,” Maserumule enthused, while emphasising the need to support first movers with funding that can make things happen.  

Now, what is termed "the first wave" is an initial cohort of projects that have participated in the PtX Project Development Standard (PtX PDS), a government-supported framework designed to strengthen project preparation, improve transparency and support investment readiness.

Together, the PtX PDS and the book appear to provide practical mechanisms for translating South Africa’s green hydrogen ambitions into implementation, with an eye being kept on the Coega green ammonia project, the Saldanha hydrogen direct reduced iron project, the Phelan Green Group’s Saldanha project, the Prieska power reserve project, the Green e-fuels producers project and the Green Hydrogen Solutions project and thumbs being held for a second wave.

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau spoke of the first wave being a signal of South Africa’s readiness to move from strategy to execution, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa of it being demonstrative of policy commitments being turned into tangible projects, and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) CEO Mmakgoshi Lekhethe of it being reflective of the growing maturity of South Africa’s hydrogen ecosystem.

These comments come against the background of the green hydrogen sector having been identified as a strategic opportunity to support industrial diversification, attract investment, create jobs, open new export markets, and advance South Africa’s decarbonisation objectives with public-private collaboration.

Together with national government and development partners, the State-owned IDC is credited with having played a role in supporting the development of South Africa’s green hydrogen ecosystem through project preparation, investment mobilisation, technical support and the advancement of key enabling frameworks.

South Africa’s renewable-energy resources, industrial base, mineral endowments and strategic location provide a foundation for the development of a competitive green hydrogen economy.

When it comes to mineral endowment, South Africa hosts the world’s biggest reserves and resources of platinum group metals, which catalyse proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers that produce green hydrogen as well as PEM fuel cells, which convert that renewable hydrogen into electricity in an emission-free manner.

South Africa’s Department of Electricity and Energy earlier this year hailed the PtX PDS as a key instrument to support a credible and investment-ready pipeline of green hydrogen and PtX projects and hailed hydrogen as a cross-cutting sector linking electricity planning, industrial development, trade, infrastructure, permitting, and finance.

PtX locks arms with technologies that use renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen for conversion into sustainable fuels, chemicals, and raw materials and also enabling the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate aviation, shipping, and chemical manufacturing sectors.