PIC buys into strategy to develop ‘fuel of the future’
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which invests the pensions of government employees, has committed to providing early-stage capital for the development of SA’s hydrogen value chain.
Africa’s largest state-run investment firm, which oversees about R2.548-trillion in assets, announced its “hydrogen investment strategy” on Monday, saying that it wanted to “leverage” the more than 200 hydrogen projects announced worldwide.
The PIC also said its strategy would look to help fund the R4.3-trillion required to develop SA’s hydrogen economy.
“The Hydrogen Roadmap has identified the PIC as a potential coinvestor with other finance institutions in hydrogen projects. Hydrogen can augment renewable energy production by offering a relatively affordable way to store and transport the excess energy produced from these sources,” the PIC said.
“SA also hosts the world’s largest platinum group metals resources, which benefit significantly from increased demand that could arise from a welldeveloped hydrogen sector.”
The Hydrogen Roadmap is a government strategy aimed at bringing together public and private stakeholders to invest in hydrogen-related technology as a means of boosting economic growth and reducing the carbon intensity of SA’s energy system.
The PIC said hydrogen promises to be the next frontier in clean-energy technology and investing in the local hydrogen economy is likely to have positive effects on society, the planet and its clients’ portfolios.
“Other benefits include job creation and localised manufacturing, and the potential of turning the country into one of the largest exporters of green hydrogen in the world.”
The PIC’s statement comes as SA is under pressure to decarbonise its economy amid a worldwide push for more sustainable energy solutions, which happens to coincide with a local power-generating shortfall due to load-shedding from Eskom’s largely coal-fired fleet of ageing power plants.
President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled an almost R1.5-trillion Just Energy Transition Investment Plan just ahead of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, aimed at enabling SA to gradually reduce its reliance on coalfired power in favour of more renewable alternatives.
The plan is partly a response to the $8.5bn funding package pledged by the US, the UK, the EU, Germany and France at the COP26 summit last year. It is aimed at supporting SA’s just energy transition, but requires the country to present a credible and acceptable plan to access the money.
Before the COP27 summit this year, forestry, fisheries & the environment minister Barbara Creecy highlighted Sasol’s ability to convert carbon into green hydrogen using Fischer-Tropsch technology.
“This technology, which is SA-owned IP [intellectual property], is very significant because it allows the potential for the development of a green liquid fuel, and if we can do that, we would essentially be turning sunshine into oil,” Creecy said in October.
INVESTING IN THE LOCAL HYDROGEN ECONOMY IS LIKELY TO HAVE POSITIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY, THE PLANET AND ITS CLIENTS’ PORTFOLIOS