The Saldanha Bay region has “excellent” solar and wind resources that have the potential for large renewable energy electricity at competitive costs, making it an ideal location to produce green hydrogen – hydrogen made using renewable energy as a source of electricity – Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) senior research engineer Thomas Roos highlighted during a recent event.

In a keynote address at the second Energy Transition webinar, on April 12, hosted by the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus (SB-IC), he said that, although electricity was a contested space in South Africa, the potential for green hydrogen production “far exceeds” local demand.

“Export potential is limited. Neighbouring countries’ economies are small and there are no high-voltage, direct current transmission lines to European markets,” said Roos.

However, if South Africa could export renewable electricity in the form of molecules (as hydrogen) rather than electrons, this would overcome the challenge of being able to export energy, he pointed out.

As one of the authors of the report ‘Powerfuels and Green Hydrogen’, prepared under the auspices of the European Union (EU) and South Africa Partners for Growth Programme, Roos said that, to produce hydrogen fuel – molecular fuel – requires water and a substantial amount of electricity.

Meanwhile, he noted that the war in Ukraine had accelerated the transition in Europe toward renewable energy.

According to REPowerEU – the Joint European action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy – the EU will increase its demand for larger volumes of renewable hydrogen imports. For example, Germany will require between 2.7-million and three-million tonnes of hydrogen fuel a year by 2030, while Japan’s demand is estimated to be between five-million and ten-million tonnes by 2050.

Another speaker participating in the webinar, GIZ senior energy adviser Marlett Balmer said South Africa had an “enormous advantage” because of the wealth of experience in organisations such as Sasol and through the development of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which is focused on how to structure community benefits.

She added that what was required now was providing the training for the skills needed to follow through on the energy transition and for investors to come to the party.

Global Maritime Forum (GMF) global opportunities project lead Katrina Abhold echoed Balmer’s sentiment, saying the GMF had looked at the opportunities to produce scalable hydrogen fuels and that Saldanha Bay was an ideal location.

“It has the space, is on a major shipping route and has access to strong renewable energy sources [solar and wind].”

She added that, to service the maritime sector, 80% of the infrastructure spend would need to be on the landside of the port. This included the development of desalination plants, hydrogen production and storage facilities, and retrofitting existing plant to deal with the transition.

Abhold was also optimistic about the potential community-level benefits of developing a green hydrogen economy.

Keren Energy MD George van Rensburg said the company’s hydrogen project in Vredendal, Western Cape, was proof that this was a viable option for the region.

Webinar moderator, Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone transaction and investor support executive Adinda Preller noted that the Innovation Campus webinars were aimed at creating awareness, building partnerships and positioning the campus as a collaborator with other special economic zones to harness the opportunities brought about as a result of the energy transition.