7 min
Green energy presenting South Africa with massive reindustrialisation chance - Nedbank Mining Weekly Audio Articles
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- Daily News
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Green electrons and green molecules are presenting South Africa with a massive opportunity to reindustrialise, Nedbank CIB head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo told the Green Hydrogen Roundtable on Monday.
"We have an opportunity for South Africa to completely reindustrialise, to start building up our industrial base that we have lost over the last ten to 15 years," was Peo's inviting message at the event addressed by the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority (CHIETA) CEO Yershen Pillay, as well as by Higher Education and Training Department deputy director-general Zukile Mvalo. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
A construct described as being critical is the need for the proper, holistic understanding of the pioneering solutions for renewable energy and how these give rise to the rewarding opportunity to create employment across a broad front.
The outlook comes against the far-reaching current generation of renewable solar and wind energy and the big volumes of renewable-energy generation planned, which provides scope for the generation of green molecules in addition to green electrons.
On the widespread opportunity presented by the generation of green molecules, Peo drew attention to what he described as "a massive misunderstanding of what green hydrogen represents".
"Huge numbers of people think that green hydrogen is one particular thing. The view held by many is that green hydrogen is going to be manufactured and used as a fuel source. We'll convert electrons into molecules and do something with those molecules.
"But the reality is that there's an incredible ecosystem that exists around green hydrogen. There are maybe 30 to 40 very specific types of opportunity that can arise as a consequence of building green hydrogen and green ammonia production plants and having molecules that can be utilised.
"The very obvious ones are the platinum group metals, building batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, very obvious. We have a massive mining sector.
"We can build green fuel cells to power some of the massive pieces of mining equipment that we need.
"We have a very dirty rail system. We can clean that up with green hydrogen trains, for example. We have a massive transport logistics industry, we need different battery sources to power those trucks.
"Sasol has manufactured its synfuels at Secunda for the past 30, 40 years. Between Sasol and Eskom, South Africa contributes something like 80% of the entire African continent's carbon emissions.
"The ability to clean up those two entities lets the rest of the continent off the hook. We can fundamentally fix the emissions problem in helping those other countries get to their net zero targets just by fixing Sasol and Eskom.
"The green ammonia/green hydrogen ecosystem ultimately enables Sasol to transform itself. The Eskom story is a little bit more complicated. Eskom has got to decommission old coal-fired power stations but some of those power stations can be transitioned via, initially, gas, and, ultimately, using green hydrogen as a fuel source. There is complexity in all of those things.
"When I said a lot of people see green hydrogen as a single thing, the real passionate belief that I have is that we have an opportunity for South Africa to completely reindustrialise, to start building up our industrial base that we have lost over the last ten to 15 years. There is a new opportunity."
Failure to do so will also put South Africa at a huge disadvantage.
"If we, for example, do not clean up our transport industry systems, our cold storage systems, we get to a point where in five years' time, we can no longer export fruit and vegetable products to our biggest partners in Europe because of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism where the Europeans are going to tax us if we want to bring non-renewable sourced product into their countries.
"The same thing happens with
This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.
Green electrons and green molecules are presenting South Africa with a massive opportunity to reindustrialise, Nedbank CIB head of infrastructure, energy and telecommunications Mike Peo told the Green Hydrogen Roundtable on Monday.
"We have an opportunity for South Africa to completely reindustrialise, to start building up our industrial base that we have lost over the last ten to 15 years," was Peo's inviting message at the event addressed by the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority (CHIETA) CEO Yershen Pillay, as well as by Higher Education and Training Department deputy director-general Zukile Mvalo. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
A construct described as being critical is the need for the proper, holistic understanding of the pioneering solutions for renewable energy and how these give rise to the rewarding opportunity to create employment across a broad front.
The outlook comes against the far-reaching current generation of renewable solar and wind energy and the big volumes of renewable-energy generation planned, which provides scope for the generation of green molecules in addition to green electrons.
On the widespread opportunity presented by the generation of green molecules, Peo drew attention to what he described as "a massive misunderstanding of what green hydrogen represents".
"Huge numbers of people think that green hydrogen is one particular thing. The view held by many is that green hydrogen is going to be manufactured and used as a fuel source. We'll convert electrons into molecules and do something with those molecules.
"But the reality is that there's an incredible ecosystem that exists around green hydrogen. There are maybe 30 to 40 very specific types of opportunity that can arise as a consequence of building green hydrogen and green ammonia production plants and having molecules that can be utilised.
"The very obvious ones are the platinum group metals, building batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, very obvious. We have a massive mining sector.
"We can build green fuel cells to power some of the massive pieces of mining equipment that we need.
"We have a very dirty rail system. We can clean that up with green hydrogen trains, for example. We have a massive transport logistics industry, we need different battery sources to power those trucks.
"Sasol has manufactured its synfuels at Secunda for the past 30, 40 years. Between Sasol and Eskom, South Africa contributes something like 80% of the entire African continent's carbon emissions.
"The ability to clean up those two entities lets the rest of the continent off the hook. We can fundamentally fix the emissions problem in helping those other countries get to their net zero targets just by fixing Sasol and Eskom.
"The green ammonia/green hydrogen ecosystem ultimately enables Sasol to transform itself. The Eskom story is a little bit more complicated. Eskom has got to decommission old coal-fired power stations but some of those power stations can be transitioned via, initially, gas, and, ultimately, using green hydrogen as a fuel source. There is complexity in all of those things.
"When I said a lot of people see green hydrogen as a single thing, the real passionate belief that I have is that we have an opportunity for South Africa to completely reindustrialise, to start building up our industrial base that we have lost over the last ten to 15 years. There is a new opportunity."
Failure to do so will also put South Africa at a huge disadvantage.
"If we, for example, do not clean up our transport industry systems, our cold storage systems, we get to a point where in five years' time, we can no longer export fruit and vegetable products to our biggest partners in Europe because of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism where the Europeans are going to tax us if we want to bring non-renewable sourced product into their countries.
"The same thing happens with
7 min