Hats off to Germany for funding a green hydrogen atlas initiative across 12 Southern African states. Germany is to be credited, too, for wasting no time in making green hydrogen central to its economic recovery strategy.
A country like Namibia, for example, has very hot sun, abundant land, seawater and established harbour infrastructure to contribute quickly to Europe’s fast-arising green hydrogen demand. Regrettably, South Africa has not yet completed its own hydrogen roadmap, even though it has been using solar power to produce green hydrogen at pilot-plant level for the last eight years.
Green hydrogen is on its way to becoming a trillion-dollar market that will generate an enormous number of jobs, stimulate industrialisation and add to demand for Southern Africa’s platinum-group metals. South Africa needs to take its cue from the Germans about getting things going fast.