South Africa’s green hydrogen ambitions been given boost to the tune of almost ZAR500 million.

Businesstech reports that the European Union (EU), as part of a bigger ZAR630 million grant package, has allocated ZAR490 million to the country’s nascent green hydrogen industry.

‘Through the development of sustainable green hydrogen value chains, the European Union contribution will seek to increase local value addition and, thereby, to support South Africa to move up higher in these value chains [and] support efforts toward the creation of a regional green hydrogen hub in the Southern Africa region,’ says Kadri Simson, the EU’ s commissioner for energy.

Another ZAR138 million will go to state-owned Transnet to aid it in its turnaround strategy and to enable it ‘to achieve its net zero emissions by 2040 goal’.

The focus of the Transnet grant will be on the role of its core operations in the green hydrogen industry and will include studies and pilot projects focused on the production and storage of low-carbon hydrogen. In addition, it will go towards providing technical assistance to structure the company’s green hydrogen strategy.

17 September 2024
Image: Freepik