Cape Town - As the country planned to move ahead with green hydrogen projects, implementing renewable energy in South Africa would require a transition framework
This is according to experts, as President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday once again said the country was determined to meet the challenges of climate change.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the special-edition Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA) conference held at the CTICC
The three-day conference seeks to promote continental green hydrogen cooperation.
It is being attended by senior expert delegates from around the continent and Europe.
“We look forward to welcoming more of the firms in the green hydrogen value chain and associated technologies into our market.
We hope to see these international firms partnering with South African firms as we increase our renewable energy footprint, green hydrogen manufacturing capability and local production of value added products.
South Africa is determined to become a world leader in green hydrogen. We are determined to make full use of our substantial endowments to meet the challenges of climate change and to achieve a just transition that benefits all our people,” he said.
Associate at the Energy Systems Research Group of UCT, Hilton Trollip said South Africa faced challenges in the implementation of renewable energy.
“South Africa faces two big challenges: how to implement renewable energy and how to do this in a way that not only transitions the energy and industrial systems but also how this is done with justice.
The first challenge requires the Department and Minerals and Energy to take up its constitutional and legislated mandates to effectively and actively implement renewable energy policy.
“The other challenge is the ‘just’ aspects of the Just Transition. This is hardly mentioned in the President’s speech and needs much more attention and action.
This is for both moral and practical political issues. Our democracy cannot expect political support unless the re-industrialisation both cares for those negatively affected by the transition from coal and distributes the benefits from the new clean industrial systems more equitably among all.
The Presidential Climate Commission has set out a framework for this and this must be kept front and centre to make the new green hydrogen economy work for us all,“ he said.
Professor of technology management at the University of Pretoria, David Richard Walwyn said: “The President has mentioned all of the country's plans before, including the recently released just energy transition investment plan, known now as JET-IP. Gone are the days when what the President says is what gets done.
We are six years behind on our renewable energy programme, and can't meet our basic energy needs, let alone another 140 GW for green hydrogen.
We lag other countries in Africa, including Morocco and Namibia in the green hydrogen market.”
Cape Times