South Africa has made significant strides towards the establishment of a green hydrogen economy

There are 19 green hydrogen projects in various stages of planning and nine of these have been declared Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) in terms of the Infrastructure Development Act of 2014. These advances have been made possible by strong leadership from The Presidency as well as the Department of Science and Innovation’s hydrogen research programme (HySA), earmarked to unlock opportunities for the country’s platinum resource.  

Despite these promising advances, the current system is optimized for larger players.  Smaller organisations and start-ups are limited in access to finance, resources and skills to scale up their activities and thereby, risk exclusion from green hydrogen projects. In the light of these challenges, H2.SA collaborated with Make-IT in Africa, a global GIZ project which commissioned Endeva e.V (an independent association) to implement the ii2030 initiative.

The ii2030 initiative seeks solutions that could enable technology to achieve the SDG's. Under this initiative, Endeva is exploring the future green hydrogen value chain and ecosystem with a specific focus on the question of opportunities for local SMEs and digital tech start-ups, focusing on Kenya, Namibia and South Africa as locations for green hydrogen production. Activities in South Africa included a series of on-line consultations and a workshop held on 8 June in Cape Town, where a small group of stakeholders assembled to propose a practical implementation plan to address the identified challenges.

Participants, representing start-ups, academia, public sector and special economic zones, proposed solutions that could build the capacity of start-ups to seize opportunities in the green hydrogen sector and four main themes emerged:

  • Information and research
  • A green hydrogen hub/one-stop-shop
  • Business matching
  • Mentorship and training.

Stakeholders then detailed the idea of a Hub for start-ups located in a Special Economic Zone.  This idea will be refined into a concept note, outlining each actor’s contribution as well as identify potential sources of funding and support.  The final concept note will be ready by the end of 2023.

If you are interested in the topic or would like to become involved in the concept development, please contact Marlett Balmer on marlett.balmer@giz.de.

The workshop was hosted by SANEDI as part of their collaboration with H2.SA on green hydrogen.