APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa and Germany have signed a joint declaration of intent to establish a hydrogen task force to explore the potential for a green hydrogen economy in the country.
South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, and German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck on Tuesday said the key outputs of the declaration were the creation of the task force to look into how a green hydrogen market could be created and ways of growing the sector.
South Africa’s green hydrogen economy, billed as one of the new frontiers for clean energy in the future with its low carbon emissions, has a global potential of about US$300 billion in exports.
With South Africa holding nearly 80 percent of the world’s platinum group metals and 40 percent of the world’s platinum and palladium supplies, which are the key components in the production of hydrogen, the country is potentially a key player in the future of the multi-billion-dollar market, they pointed out.
According to Ramokgopa, the South African government has already drawn up plans for a “hydrogen valley” which is expected to run from Limpopo province, through Johannesburg in Gauteng province, to Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province.
The valley would set up opportunities for projects to kick-start hydrogen initiatives in hubs with the aim of boosting economic growth and job creation, the minister said.
Business to business opportunities between South African companies and their German counterparts would also be created through the task force, the officials said.
The cooperation between the two countries would link South African developers in the green hydrogen market with off-takers in Germany, they added.
NM/jn/APA