If one looks at the energy storage options available today, one must be excited about green hydrogen. The storage options are batteries, hydrogen and pumped water storage.
As pumping and storing water is as green as it gets, the contest turns to hydrogen versus batteries. For this contest to be done fairly, it must take mineral intensity, carbon footprint and recycling into account, which results in hydrogen, which can make use of moderately modified existing infrastructure, emerging as the clear winner. Not all hydrogen generation is done with the help of platinum group metals (PGMs).
Hydrogen generation through alkaline electrolysers does not require PGMs, and nor does hydrogen from ammonia and direct combustion. Hydrogen is only green when renewables apply and renewables are inconsistent, which means storage is essential, and energy is very storable as hydrogen. What’s more, if proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers and PEM fuel cells win out – which they should on efficiency grounds – it will be a colossal bonus for South Africa because these require the PGMs that Southern Africa hosts in such abundance. In fact, a green hydrogen energy transition can be the just energy transition that South Africa simply must have.