Rector of the University of Western Cape, Professor Brian O'Connell
Director of the Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Systems, Dr Øystein Ulleberg
Director-General of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara
Distinguished guests
Thank you for inviting me to address you.
Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are part of the energy grand challenge, one of the Department of Science and Technology's five "grand challenge" fields.
Grand challenges are an important organising principle for science, technology, and innovation policy. This is how the United States organises its innovation strategy and how the European Union is planning to organise its innovation strategy. So there is nothing unusual in choosing a set of grand challenges and hitching funding and research to a set of focussed goals and outcomes.
Our aim is to achieve a 25 percent share of the global hydrogen and fuel cell catalysts market using novel platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts.
As most people here are aware, platinum group metal-based electrocatalysts are an important component of most types of fuel cells. South Africa has more than 75 percent of the world's known platinum group metal reserves and we anticipate that, with the global emergence of the hydrogen economy, the demand for these resources will increase.
We aim to develop PGM-based manufacturing activities and to ensure that we exploit the numerous socio-economic opportunities that our participation in the emerging hydrogen economy will present.
To this end, my department developed the national hydrogen and fuel cell technologies research, development and innovation strategy, approved by Cabinet in May 2007, which is now known as Hydrogen South Africa or HySA.
Allow me to give an outline of the objectives and critical elements of this strategy, and what we are doing to implement it.
The vision of HySA is "to use local resources and existing knowledge to create knowledge and human resource capacity, enabling the development of high value commercial activities in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies".
To enable the pursuit of this vision, the department has established three centres of competence: the Hydrogen Systems Integration and the Technology Validation Centre of Competence hosted by the University of the Western Cape (called HySA Systems), our host for today's event; the Hydrogen Catalysis Centre of Competence, co-hosted by Mintek and the University of Cape Town (HySA Catalysis); and the Hydrogen Infrastructure Centre of Competence co-hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the North West University (HySA Infrastructure).
Each of these centres has a specific research and development mandate, but all three share the common vision of fostering proactive innovation and developing the human resources required to undertake competitive research and development activities in the field of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
Under the strategy, we also set up the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Public Awareness, Demonstration and Education Platform, hosted by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement.
The objectives of the HySA Public Awareness is to spread the word about hydrogen and fuel cell technologies as clean, safe, and sustainable energy solutions for the future, as well as to facilitate the demonstration of such technologies through a visual programme. The target audiences in this regard are young people (in particular learners and students), the general public, the private sector, key decision makers and entrepreneurs.
The Department of Science and Technology gave the HySA centres of competence baseline funding to cover establishment costs. This phase has been completed, and it gives me great pleasure to inform you that all our centres of competence are now fully operational, with world-acclaimed competence centre directors driving research efforts outlined in three-year business plans.
Since the September 2008 appointment of Dr Ulleberg as the Director driving the research efforts of HySA Systems, it has developed in leaps and bounds, as can be seen in the amount of project funding that the centre has won, and the outputs that have been made or that are in the pipeline.
I am told that the project funding allocation is based on competitive bidding among the three centres and it gives me great pleasure to see what you have done with it. I am happy to be able to see for myself the excellent work that is being done here.
I am particularly pleased to note that, in just one year, you have managed to more than double your student numbers, although I hope that you will soon be successful in attracting more women and more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve the current representation.
I dare say that members of the HySA community were alarmed when President Obama's United States administration cut its hydrogen research programme last year. After all the United States is the world leader in hydrogen research. So when the new energy secretary, a Nobel prize winner to boot, chose to redirect funding away from hydrogen research to other fields, some hearts in this room may have started to beat faster.
There was an outcry at the United States cut in funding and I understand that there are plans to reverse it this year so as retain an edge over the competition.
And the competition is building.
We certainly need to take steps to build up our hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. We cannot allow Mauritius and Tunisia to steal a march on us.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the HySA centres of competence are working towards developing capabilities in three main application areas: combined heat and power systems, portable power systems, and hydrogen fuelled vehicles, with human capital development as a cross-cutting focus.
My department realised early on that South Africa, which entered the field rather late, will not be able to succeed on its own, and we therefore made it a contractual obligation for HySA to recruit internationally recognised experts like Dr Ulleberg in the field of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
In order not to reinvent the wheel we have encouraged our centres of competence to develop strategic collaborations with academia and industry both locally and abroad, and HySA Systems has managed to secure a number of collaborative agreements with leading players in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in Germany, Norway and China.
Since our comparative advantage in respect of access to platinum gives us an edge over the competition, we hope that these agreements will give us the boost we need to become a world leader in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
Last month we saw the fruits of HySA's research efforts at the launch of Ahi Fambeni, a hydrogen fuelled bicycle powered by HySA Systems' innovative metal hydride storage technology. I am sure that many more innovative ideas will be coming to the fore.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Department of Science and Technology's Centre of Competence on Hydrogen Technology Validation and Systems Integration, HySA Systems.
Thank you.
