Green Hydrogen Project in Southern Africa Expands to 5 GW, Says AFSIA’s Annual Report

The annual report of the solar trade organization, Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA) shows that the renewable-powered green hydrogen project in Southern African nations demonstrates the huge clean energy potential of the continent. The green hydrogen project in Namibia and Botswana has been recently increased from 1 GW to 5 GW of generation capacity.

The update on this massive green hydrogen project was announced by AFSIA’s CEO John Frédérick van Zuylen, during a webinar held recently to put on view the trade organization’s annual report. The project in Southern Africa was cited among the examples that demonstrate the evidence of a strong large-scale solar pipeline in the continent.

For Africa, it is highly important to generate green hydrogen competitively and become energy producers for their own domestic use, industrial businesses, and export.  There is a current need for green hydrogen facilities to produce green ammonia and fertilizers for use in Africa. 

The price of fossil fuels is likely to be upwards in the medium and long term, as well as other issues related to its transportation internationally and within Africa, have brought up the necessity to produce green ammonia in many African countries at a cost that is significantly lower than the overall cost of buying ammonia from the international market. 

AFSIA reiterated the suggestion that Africa should consider harnessing the green hydrogen output which could be offered by the high renewables potential of the countries such as Algeria, Namibia, and South Africa to develop domestic ammonia and fertilizer industries.

The CEO also mentioned the launch of a 1 GW solar project in Algeria in December last year, which is expected to enter into the developmental phase this year, and also plans for South Africa’s five renewable projects with a total generation capacity of 975 MW.

According to AFSIA, the share of new global solar capacity for Africa fell to 0.5% last year, from 3.1% three years earlier. Although several encouraging developments in the commercial and industrial (C&I), mini-grid, and solar home system (SHS) segments in the renewable energy market are going on, substantial efforts are required in the sector to improve the solar capacity.