PIC punts hydrogen as 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” in a statement on Monday, saying it wanted to “leverage” the more than 200 hydrogen projects announced worldwide. The PIC also said its strategy would look to help fund the about R4.3trillion that is required to develop SA’S hydrogen economy.
“The Hydrogen Roadmap has identified the PIC as a potential co-investor with other finance institutions in hydrogen projects. Hydrogen can augment renewable energy production with 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 (PGM) resources which benefit significantly from increased demand that could arise from a welldeveloped hydrogen sector.”
The Hydrogen Roadmap aims to bring together public and private investors in hydrogen technology to boost economic growth and reduce 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 it is likely to help society, the planet and its clients’ portfolios. “Other benefits include job creation and localised manufacturing; we could turn SA into a top exporter of green hydrogen in the world,” the PIC said.
SA is under global pressure to decarbonise its economy amid a worldwide push for greener energy solutions, which happens to coincide with an unprecedented local power generating crisis. President Cyril Ramaphosa recently unveiled an almost R1.5-trillion just energy transition (JET) investment plan aimed at enabling SA to gradually reduce its reliance on coal-fired power in favour of more renewable alternatives.
The JET is partly a response to the $8.5bn funding package pledged by richer nations at the COP26 summit, which is aimed at supporting SA’S just energy transition but which requires the country to present a credible and acceptable plan to access the money.
Just prior the COP27 summit, Barbara Creecy, the minister of forestry, fisheries and environmental affairs, 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.