Green Hydrogen - The future of energy in focus at Premier’s 31st Energy Digicon
“Green hydrogen has arrived, and green hydrogen is here to stay.” That was the message from Premier Alan Winde’s special guests at his 31st Energy Digicon.
Premier Winde started hosting these digicons in March this year, following his commitment in his State of the Province Address, to spend R1,1 billion on energy resilience over the next 3 years. Much of this funding is targeted at creating an enabling environment for role players like municipalities and the private sector to become energy resilient and for the province to become the first to beat load shedding in South Africa. The energy digicons have:
- kept residents updated on the provincial government’s plans towards the Western Cape becoming energy resilient;
- provided regular updates on the state of the energy sector in South Africa; and
- covered a wide range of topics with the aim of helping residents understand how they can adapt and become energy resilient.
At this week’s digicon, the last of 2023, local independent power producer, the Phelan Green Energy Group, outlined its renewable energy investment programme in the Western Cape.
It is investing R47 billion in constructing a green hydrogen (GH2) plant in Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape. With an abundance of solar and wind resources in Saldanha Bay, the region is attracting interest from the private sector to develop renewable energy and GH2.
GH2 development is steadily gaining momentum in South Africa and the Western Cape. But what is GH2? The company’s Head of Hydrogen, Mr Blair Phelan, explained that essentially the “raw materials” needed to produce GH2 are sun, wind, and water. “You put that into an electrolyser, you put the energy and the water in together and it splits the hydrogen and oxygen.”
Hydrogen can be used for various purposes. “It is essentially a fuel that fixes the problem of hard-to-abate industries such as steel, cement, and glass industries, among others, that require intense energy supply at high temperatures,” Mr Phelan said.
These industries have historically produced hydrogen using environmentally damaging fossil fuels but the process to produce GH2 is more environmentally sustainable. Using renewable energy and desalinated water ensures that the process and its use are more environmentally friendly than alternatives.
The Saldanha Green Hydrogen Project is anticipated to commence initial exports in early 2026.
Ms Adinda Preller, Business Development Manager at the Phelan Green Energy Group stated, “What is clear is that we do need a change in our energy mix. GH2 will be part of the future energy mix.”
GH2 production requires a large workforce. Mr Phelan emphasised, “The Saldanha Bay project will create 2500 jobs and that will grow over time as the project grows.” The project will also be scaled up over time.
In his regular energy status update, Mr Alwie Lester, Special Advisor to the Premier on Energy, pointed out, “Although we have more installed capacity, we seem to be producing less energy. This is a symptom of an ailing and failing fleet (of power stations). If I look at the trend over the last 12 months, I do not see that improving significantly. If you look at the average energy availability factor (EAF) numbers that we have had for most of this year, we have hovered at the almost 50% level of EAF. We only once touched 60% and that was for a week. We are down to 54% this week. We have bursts of performance and then slump back down to the norm of about 55%.” The EAF average for 2022 was 58%, compared to 2023 which was at 54.8%. This is far too low for a country that has to urgently grow its economy.
Looking ahead to Christmas day, Mr Lester said Eskom usually tries to buffer the impact of power cuts over the festive period. “Call it what you may, maybe it is a Christmas present to the country that we have less load shedding but the fact is that we are still going to have load shedding. I expect we will be between stages 3 and 4,” he remarked.
Premier Winde concluded by saying, “It is encouraging to see the confidence that businesses such as Phelan Green Energy Group have in the Western Cape as a place of investment and policy certainty. Green energy will be a significant component of our energy mix going into the future. The load shedding crisis that we face cannot be addressed solely by Eskom. Businesses such as Phelan are investing in the future of energy in our country as well as into the local community. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that the Western Cape is the obvious place where businesses can invest.”
To watch a recording of this week’s digicon visit:
https://www.youtube.com/live/OgcTGkqB80A?si=kVAsTi5Mv_z5x1WS
Media Enquiries:
Regan Thaw
Media Liaison Officer
Office of the Premier
Cell: 083 627 7246
E-mail: Regan.Thaw@westerncape.gov.za
